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PUBLISHER'S    NOTE. 

The  articles  in  the  following 
pages  were  originally  published  in 
the  New  Year's  edition  of  the 
Japanese  American  Daily  News. 
They  have  been  so  highly  com- 
mended that  we  think  it  worth 
while  to  preserve  them  in  pam- 
phlet form.  We  take  this  oppor- 
tunity to  acknowledge  the  gen- 
erosity of  our  friends  who  favored 
us  with  articles.  We  are  also  in- 
debted to  Mr.  Lindsey  Russell  and 
Messrs.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons, 
editor  and  publishers,  respec- 
tively, of  the  book  "  America  to 
•Japan"  for  the  permission  to  re- 
print a  few  articles  from  that 
book. — The  Japanese  American 

\e\vs. 

If/C 


K  INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 

By  K.  K,  Kawakanii. 

Author   of   "American- Japanese   Relations,"    "Asia   at   the 

Door,"  etc. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  we  present  in  this  issue  of 
the  Japanese  American  Daily  News  a  symposium  of  views  on 
American-Japanese  relations,  and  more  especially  on  the  ques- 
tion, if  question  it  may  be  called,  of  the  Japanese  in  America. 
We  take  occasion  to  thank  our  American  friends  who  have  so 
promptly  and  generously  responded  to  our  request  and  fa- 
vored us  with  statements  which  we  believe  are  as  frank  as 
they  are  sincere. 

In  writing  the  following  introductory  remarks  it  is  not 
my  intention  to  criticise  or  dispute  the  views  expressed  by 
our  contributors.  We  presume,  however,  that  our  American 
friends  and  critics  are  just  as  desirous  to  know  our  views  on 
the  question  as  we  are  anxious  to  hear  their  opinion.  We 
believe  in  free  and  unreserved  exchange  of  views  as  a  means 
of  establishing  mutual  understanding.  No  question  can  be 
settled  right  without  presenting  both  sides  of  the  case  before. 
the  tribunal  of  public  opinion.  What  I  am  going  to  say  in 
the  following  few  paragraphs,  therefore,  is  simply  to  let  our 
American  friends  know  how  we  foel  about  the  question,  not  to 
enter  into  any  controversy  with  them. 

fnnn)</r<ifi<»i    and   Xnfunilimfion. 

And  now  we  come  to  our  main  contention.  We  shall  say 
at  once  that  in  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  see,  the  Japanese  Gov- 
ernment does  not  intend  to  force  emigration  upon  the  United 
States.  In  1907  the  Mikado's  Government,  in  deference  to 
the  wish  of,  the  American  Government,  signed  the  so-called 
gentlemen's  agreement  restricting  most  strictly  Japanese  im- 
migration to  these  shores.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
•Japan  intends  indefinitely  to  continue  the  gentlemen's  agree- 
ment. 

On  this  point  I  think  that  Mr.  Jefferson  Jones  in  his  article, 
presented  elsewhere  in  this  issue,  sets  forth  a  view  not  only 
interesting  but  thought-provoking.  What  Japan  is  after,  he 
says,  is  not  emigration  but  recognition — recognition  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  comity  of  civilized  powers.  Canada  and  Australia 
restrict  Japanese  immigration  more  strictly  than  does  the 
United  States.  And  yet  the  Japanese  have  not  protested 
against  them  half  as  strongly  as  they  have  protested  against 

C    1    ) 

327573 


this  country.  Why?  Because,  in  Mr.  Jones'  judgment, 
Great  Britain  has  fully  recognized  Japan's  progress  and 
achievements  as  a  civilized  power  by  dealing  with  her  on  a 
plane  of  equality,  by  entering  into  alliance  with  her,  and  thus 
saved  Japan's  face. 

Moreover  Canada  extends  citizenship  to  the  Japanese, 
and  has  always  permitted  both  the  naturalized  and  alien 
Japanese  to  own  land.  In  most  provinces  the  Japanese  even 
enjoy  the  franchise. 

Mr.  Jones'  contention  furnishes  food  for  reflection. 
Suppose  that  the  United  States  asked  Japan  to  continue  the 
gentlemen's  agreement  indefinitely  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 
the  other  hand  saved  Japan's  face  by  extending  citizenship  to 
the  small  number  of  the  Japanese  already  domiciled  in  this 
country.  Mr.  Jones  fears  that  such  a  course  may  compel  the 
United  States  to  extend  the  same  privilege  to  all  Asiatics. 
In  reply  to  this  we  say  that  the  United  States  need  not  extend 
to  countries  not  yet  admitted  into  the  family  of  civilized  powers 
the  privileges  which  she  has  conferred  upon  the  subjects  01 
citizens  of  a  country  which  has  been  recognized  in  the  con- 
course of  the  nations  as  a  first-class  power.  Do  not  jump  into 
the  conclusion  that  the  Japanese  are  cocky  and  bumptious. 
We  are  keenly  alive  to  our  shortcomings  and  defects  which 
we  have  not  permitted  the  halo  of  our  achievements  to  ob- 
scure. And  yet  we  hope  that  our  American  critics  will  give 
us  credit  for  what  we  have  accomplished  in  the  brief  period 
of  fifty  years,  and  recognize  that  Japan  is  the  only  nation 
in  Asia  imbued  with  modern  civilization. 

Mr.  Carlos  K.  McClatchy,  of  the  Sacramento  Bee,  in  his 
article  printed  in  this  number,  says  that  the  Japanese  should 
not  ask  for  citizenship.  We  know  as  well  as  Mr.  McClatchy 
that  naturalization  is  a  privilege  which  should  be  granted 
only  by  the  will  of  the  American  Government,  not  upon  the 
demand  of  any  alien  government  Dr  people.  That  is  why  we 
hope  that  sooner  or  later — better  sooner  than  later — the  Amer- 
ican Government  and  people  will  come  to  look  upon  the  ques- 
tion in  the  light  of  broader  international  relations.  If  there 
be  in  international  dealings  such  a  thing  as  courtesy,  we  hope 
that  the  United  States  will  not  forget  to  adhere  to  its  com- 
mon dictates. 

The  granting  of  naturalization  to  Orientals  is  so  radical 
a  departure  from  the  fixed  idea  of  America  that  most  people 
are  highly  skeptical  of  it.  But  if  a  future  historian,  ages 
after  our  departure  from  this  world,  were  to  chronicle  the 

C    2    ) 


events  that  are  happening  today,  he  woul£  no  doubt  wonder 
why  there  was  so  much  ado  about  the  naturalization  of  the 
Japanese  in  America.  The  course  of  history  is  tortuous..  It 
abounds  in  many  backward  bends  and  many  refluent  eddies. 
Man  is  essentially  conservative.  He  does  not  easily  abandon 
the  old  and  adopt  the  new.  When  the  British  populace  began 
to  clamor  for  popular  rights,  those  so-called  upper  classes  who 
held  the  kingdom  in  the  hollows  of  their  hands  lifted  hands 
in  holy  horror  and  condemned  the  masses  as  though  they  had 
committed  the  foulest  crime  in  demanding  liberty  and  human 
rights.  So  it  is  with  all  innovations. 

Hawaii  and  California. 

It  is  important  to  note  the  difference  between  the  situa- 
tion in  Hawaii  and  the  situation  in  California  or  on  the 
Pacific  Coast.  Some  critics  point  to  Hawaii  as  an  example 
of  Orientalizaticn  of  the  American  soil,  and  warns  that 
California  should  not  become  a  second  Hawaii.  The  fact 
is  that  California  will  never  become  a  second  Hawaii,  even 
if  she  wanted  to  become  such,  because  the  conditions  prevail- 
ing here  are  radically  different  from  those  in  Hawaii.  To 
be  convinced  of  this  it  is  only  necessary  to  know  some- 
Hi  ing  of  the  history  of  the  sugar  industry  in  the  islands. 
To  begin  with,  Hawaii  was  not  a  white  man's  land;  it 
was  inhabited  by  dark-skinned  semi-civilized  natives.  And 
when  the  white  men  secured  the  privilege  to  exploit  its 
natural  resources  they  brought  by  the  shipload  all  sorts 
of  Oriental  labour  for  the  sugar  plantations.  The  country 
had  neither  the  white  population  nor  "white  civiliza- 
tion" when  the  planters  began  to  import  Oriental  laborers. 

The  conditions  on  the  Pacific  Coast  are  totally  different. 
Here  American  civilization  and  the  Caucasian  population 
have  been  so  firmly  established  that  Japanese  immigration, 
so  strictly  checked  by  the  gentlemen's  agreement,  cannot 
possibly  become  a  danger. 

Nor  can  argument  advanced  against  Chinese  immigra- 
tion prior  to  the  enactment  of  the  Chinese  exclusion  laws 
he  applied  to  the  Japanese  immigration  of  today.  The 
Chinese  immigration  from  1854  to  1882  totalled  139,455, 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  which  came  to  and  remained 
in  California.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  in  the  seventies 
of  the  past  century  when  agitation  for  Chinese  exclusion 
was  begun,  the  state  of  California  had  a  population  of  only 
560,000,  including  negroes,  Indians,  and  Chinese,  the  appre- 
hension that  the  Chinese  might  hinder  the  wholesome 

C    3    ) 


growth  of  the  white  community  in  the  state  was  not  without 
ground.  But'  the  conditions  on  the  Pacific  Coast  have  since 
radically  changed,  while  circumstances  attendant  upon 
Japanese  immigration  are  widely  'different  from  those  accom- 
panying Chinese  immigration.  In  1900  the  white  popula- 
tion of  California  increased  to  1,402,727,  and  in  1910  to 
2,259,672.  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  the  number  of  the 
Japanese  in  the  state.  The  census  of  1910  places  it  at  41,356. 
While  this  seems  to  be  a  conservative  estimate,  it  is  perhaps 
no  more  conservative  than  the  number  given  for  the  white 
population.  Perhaps  the  common  estimate  which  places 
the  number  of  Japanese  at  60,000  is  not  far  from  the  mark, 
although  much  of  it  consists  of  floating  elements  contemplat- 
'  ing  to  return  to  Japan  or,  to  a  lesser  extent,  to  move  to 
other  states.  This  number  will  probably  remain  stationary 
if  it  does  not  materially  decrease,  because  of  the  fact  that 
the  gap  left  by  departing  Japanese  will  be  filled  by  children 
born  of  Japanese  parents  in  the  state. 

With  the  gentlemen's  agreement  strictly  enforced,  with 
Americans  flowing  into  California  from  eastern  states  in 
ever  increasing  streams,  with  the  opening  of  the  Panama 
Canal  stimulating  European  immigration,  there  is  no  reason 
why  California  should  apprehend  the  "Orientalization" 
of  the  state. 

Let  me  be  frank  and  say  -that  America  ought  to  be 
thankful  that  she  finds  in  Japan  an  efficient  government  to 
<deal  with  in  the  adjustment  of  the  immigration  question. 
The  Tokio  Government  has  been  handling  the  matter  so 
effectively  and  skillfully  and  honestly  that  no  Japanese  has 
ever  been  smuggled  into  these  shores.  With  the  recent 
sensational  story  of  the  smuggling  of  Chinese  before  us, 
have  not  the  people  of  California  reason  to  be  glad  that 
the  Federal  Government,  in  dealing  with  Japan,  is  not 
dealing  with  such  an  inefficient  Government  as  that  of 
China? 

Not  only  is  the  Japanese  Government  restricting  immi- 
gration to  the  United  States  but  it  is  most  carefully  restrict- 
ing emigration  to  Mexico  and  Canada.  TJQ  spite  of  all  the 
insinuations  which  the  sensational  journals  of  this  country 
are  publishing  with  regard  to  the  alleged  Japanese  activities 
in  Mexico  there  are  only  3,400  or  4,000  Japanese  in  all 
Mexico,  and  the  number  is  fast  decreasing  because  of  the 
choatic  political  condition  in  that  country.  The  story  of 
Japanese  designs  upon  Magdalena  Bay  and  Turtle  Bay  is  a 

(     4     ) 


crime  deliberately  committed  by  certain  newspapers  in  this 
country  for  the  purpose  of  stirring  up  ill-feeling  between 
Japan  and  the  United  States. 

The  Picture  Bride. 

And  now  let  me  touch  upon  the  question  of  the  "picture 
bride."  The  picture  bride  cannot  be  understood  without  un- 
derstanding the  marriage  institution  of  Japan.  When  I  heard 
Dr.  William  Elliot  Griffis,  perhaps  the  greatest  American  au- 
thority on  Japan,  say  that  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world  the 
Japanese  alone  has  for  centuries  practiced  the  principle  of  eu- 
genics. I  thought  he  was  joking.  But  he  propounded  the  theory 
so  convincingly  that  I  had  to  change  my  mind  somewhat.  He 
emphasized  the  immense  amount  of  pains  and  care  which 
the  Japanese  parents  take  in  looking  into  the  genealogy, 
character,  education,  health  and  what  not  of  tjie  young 
man  or  young  girl  who  is  to  be  the  life  companion  of 
their  daughter  or  son.  Japan  is  the  country  where  Cupid 
is  not  permitted  to  give  full  play  to  his  whims  and  wiles. 
To  the  Japanese  parents  marriage  is  the  most  serious 
business.  Apart  from  the  question  whether  marriage,  un- 
accompanied by  courtship  shrouded  in  the  glamour  of  love 
and  poetry  and  romance,  is  really  vrortb  contracting,  we 
must  concede  that  the  marriage  institution  in  Japan  is 
strongly  tinned  with  the  rationalism,  of  modern  civilization. 
Personally,  I  am  not  sure  that  I  prefer  such  rational 
marriage  to  the  romantic  morriage  prevalent  in  the  West, 
for  I  am  blessed  with  frailties  common  to  humanity,  but  that 
need  not  change  my  general  view.  The  point  is  that  the 
picture  bride  is  simply  the  product  of  the  time-honored 
eugenic,  rational  marriage-institution  of  Japan.  I  don't 
i nra n  to  recommend  this  sort  of  marriage  to  my  American 
friends,  but  to  the  Japanese  the  institution  seems  satis- 
factory and  salutary. 

The  Problem  Economic  and  Racial. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  Mr.  Mullen  and  Mr.  Macarthur  tell 
us  that  the  Japanese  question  is  primarily  and  essentially 
an  economic  problem.  If  it  be  so  it  would  be  the  part  of 
wisdom  on  the  part  of  organized  labor  to  open  its  doors  to 
Japanese  workers  and  admit  them  into  its  membership,  or 
permit  the  Japanese  labor  unions  to  affiliate  with  the  central 
labor  organizations  of  America.  This  will  establish  the  same 
wage  scale. both  for  the  Japanese  and  for  American  workers, 
and  thus  eliminate  competition. 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  men  who  regard  it  as  a 

(    5    ) 


race  problem,  and  who  discuss  the  question  from 
the  point  of  view  of  intermarriage.  Let  me  say  at 
once  that  California  need  not  have  the  slightest  appre- 
hension on  the  matter  of  intermarriage  between  Japanese 
and  Caucasians.  In  the  first  place  cases  of  such  intermarriage 
will  always  be  very  few.  The  Japanese  are  proud  of  their 
blood  no  less  than  the  Americans  are  proud  of  their  blood. 
The  mixture  of  blood  in  the  south  is  the  outcome  of  brute 
passions  of  the  white  taskmasters  vented  upon  helpless  slave 
women,  who  were  nothing  but  their  chattels  and  who  had 
not  the  slightest  sense  of  human  dignity.  Such  a  condition 
does  not  apply  to  California. 

Nor  Japanese  and  American  blood  will  not  mix  to  any 
appreciable  extent.  The  few  cases  of  intermarriage  which 
may  occur  here  and  there  need  excite  no  apprehension,  for 
the  average  offspring  of  Japanese-American  union  is  as 
bright,  intelligent,  handsome,  and  lovable  as  the  average 
American  or  Caucasion  child.  If  such  offsprings  were 
mentally  deficient  or  homely  in  appearance,  that  would  of 
course  make  a  world  of  difference.  But  inasmuch  as  they 
are  pretty  and  bright  as  any  child  the  stork  has  ever  brought 
to  light,  there  is  no  reason  why  intermarriage  should  be 
objected  to.  I  am  fully  aware  that  because  of  the  age-long 
prejudice  against  intermarriage  the  children  of  Japanese- 
American  parentage  will  more  or  less  have  to  suffer  social 
disadvantages.  But  they  will  suffer  no  greater  disadvantage 
than  have  been  suffered  by  all  other  pioneers  in  a  new  field. 
And  their  suffering  will  be  richly  rewarded,  for  when 
they  have  proved  their  worth  and  virtue  they  shall  have 
conquered  a  world-wide  prejudice.  If  they  are  comely 
in  appearance,  if  they  are  respectable  in  demeanor,  if  they 
are  well  educated,  the  rest  will  take  care  of  itself;  neither 
Dame  California  nor  Madame  Columbia  need  worry  about 
their  future.  This  is  not  a  dogmatic  assertion  but  a  con- 
clusion based  upon  substantial  facts  and  evidence. 

The  degree  of  disadvantage  which  the  Japanese-American 
children  may  experience  can  best  be  gauged  by  observing  if 
American  children,  i.  e.,  children  in  whose  veins  runs  noth- 
ing but  the  Caucasian  blood,  instinctively  play  with  them  and 
easily  become  their  whole-hearted  friends.  If  the  Japanese- 
American  children  find  difficulty  in  making  friends  of 
American  children,  their  disadvantage  in  life  will  be  great. 
My  observations  convince  me  that  the  children  of  respectable 
Japanese  men  and  American  women  are  readily  accepted  and 

C    6    ) 


welcomed  by  other  children,  either  at  school  or  in  the  neigh- 
borhood in  which  they  live.  What  is  still  more  important,  ex- 
perience has  shown  that  they  have  no  difficulty  in  marrying 
Caucasians. 

The  admixture  of  Japanese  and  American  blood  will  take 
place  in  eastern  States  rather  than  in  California.  Cali- 
fornia's game  is  the  game  of  the  ostrich  who  buries  his  head 
in  the  sand  and  thinks  he  is  safe  from  the  gun  of  the  hunter. 
Spencer  on  Race  Fusion. 

Those  who  object  to  'intermarriage  of  Japanese  and 
Caucasian  refer  to  Herbert  Spencer's  biological  and 
sociological  theories.  Pity  the  man  who  has  not  kept  abreast 
with  the  rapid  progress  of  science  and  think  that  Spencer's 
is  the  last  word  on  the  question!  In  many  respects  Spencer 
is  no  longer  the  authority.  He  has  had  his  day,  but  his  light 
has  been  dimmed  by  the  greater  stars  that  have  risen. 

For  the  sake  of  the  Spencer-worshipper,  however,  let  me 
quote  the  following  from  his  Principles  of  Sociology: 

''From  their  (nearly  allied  peoples')  fusion  results  a 
community  which,  determined  in  its  leading  traits  by  the 
character  common  to  the  two,  and  prevented  by  their  dif- 
ferences of  character  from  being  determined  in  its  minor 
traits — is  left  capable  of  taking  on  new  arrangements 
wrought  by  new  influences;  medium  plasticity  allows  those 
changes  of  structure  constituting  advance  in  heterogeneity. 
One  example  is  furnished  us  by  the  Hebrews;  who,  notwith- 
standing their  boasted  purity  of  blood,  resulted  from  a 
mixing  of  many  Semitic  varieties  in  the  country  east  of  the 
Nile,  and  who,  both  in  their  wanderings  and  after  the  con- 
quest of  Palestine,  went  on  amalgamating  kindred  tribes. 
Another  is  supplied  by  Athensans,  whose  progress  had  for 
antecedent  the  mingling  of  numerous  immigrants  from  other 
Greek  states  with  the  Greeks  of  the  locality.  The  fusion  by 
conquest  of  the  Romans  with  other  Aryan  tribes,  Sabini, 
Sabelli  and  Samnites,  preceded  the  first  ascending  stage  of 
the  Roman  civili/ation.  And  our  own  country,  peopled  by 
different  divisions  of  the  Aryan  race,  and  mainly  by  varieties 
of  Scandinavians,  illustrates  this  effect  produced  by  the 
mixture  of  units  sufficiently  alike  to  co-operate  in  the  same 
social  system,  but  sufficiently  unlike  to  prevent  that  social 
system  from  becoming  forthwith  definite  in  structure." 

I  think  that  this  theory  can  very  well  be  applied  to  the 
admixture  of  Japanese  and  Caucasian  blood.  Mentally  and 
physically  the  Japanese  and  Caucasians  are  not  so  radically 

C    7*) 


different  as  to  cause  racial  degeneration  in  the  event  of 
their  mingling.  When  Spencer  penned  the  above  theory  he 
did  not  know  the  Japanese.  The  few  Japanese  whom  he 
had  a  glimpse  of  wore  a  topknot  and  were  garbed  in  exotic 
costumes  of  feudal  Japan,  which  made  them  appear  all 
too'  different  from  the  Caucasian  race  to  be  comprehended 
by  the  Westerner.  Had  Spencer  lived  till  this  day  and 
enjoyed  the  advantages  resulting  from  modern  scientific  in- 
vestigations, he  would  have  had  something  more  definite  to 
say  about  the  Japanese. 

Much  amateur  view  has  been  advanced  as  to  the  biological 
aspect  of  intermarriage.  For  example,  some  people  attribute 
the  present  unhappy  condition  of  Mexico  to  the  admixture 
of  Spanish  anfr  native  blood.  This  is  tommy  rot.  If  the 
Mexicans  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  modern  educational 
system  and  basked  in  the  blessings  of  an  efficient  govern- 
ment they  would  be  just  as  efficient  and  keen  as  the  other 
Latin  American  people.  It  is  not  the  mixture  of  blood 
but  corrupt  political  system  and  bad  social  environment 
which  are  responsible  for  their  degradation.  Let  us  listen  - 
to  what  Francis  Lieber  has  to  say  on  this  point: 

"It  is  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  to  live  under  wise 
laws  administered  by  an  upright  government  and  obeyed  and 
carried  out  by  good  and  staunch  citizens;  it  is  most  grate- 
ful and  animating  to  a  generous  heart,  and  a  mind  which 
cheerfully  assists  in  the  promotion  of  the  general  good,  or 
salutary  institutions.  It  greatly  contributes  to  our  self- 
esteem  if  we  live  in  a  community  which  we  respect,  among 
fellow-men  we  gladly  acknowledge  as  fellow-citizens.  Many 
of  the  noblest  actions  which  'now  adorn  the  pages  of  history 
have  originated  from  this  course  of  inspiration.  On  the 
contrary,  we  feel  ourselves  humbled,  dispirited,  we  find 
our  own  views  contracted  and  our  moral  vigor  relaxed,  we 
feel  deprived  of  that  buoyancy  without  which  no  manly  and 
resolute  self-possession  can  exist,  it  wears  off  the  edge  of 
moral  sensitiveness,  when  we  see  ourselves  surrounded  by 
men  with  loose  political  principles,  by  a  society  destitute 
of  active  public  opinion,  which  neither  cheers  the  honest 
nor  frowns  down  immoral  boldness;  when  we  hear  of  bribed 
judges,  perjured  officers,  suborned  witnesses,  of  favor 
instead  of  law,  and  can  perceive  only  listless  spectators, 
without  any  opinion  of  their  own,  any  spirit  of  veracity  and 
trustworthiness  or  mutual  dependence." 

This  is  exactly  the  theory  applicable  to  Mexico.     It  is 

C    8    ) 


idle    to   ascribe    the    chaotic    state    in    that    country    to   the 
hybrid  race  that  dwell  there. 

Modern  Biological  Views. 

Such  great  American  authorities  on  biology  as  Professor 
Boas  and  Professor  Loeb,  of  Columbia  University,  have  fre- 
quently stated  that  intermarriage  of  Japanese  and  Ameri- 
cans begets  offspring  by  no  means  inferior  to  either  race. 
Professor  Baelz,  a  German  physician  of  the  Tokio  Imperial 
University,  says  on  this  matter: 

"On  this  question  I  may  speak  with  a  certain  degree  of 
authority,  having  been  the  first,  and  in  fact  up  to  this  day 
the  only  scientist,  who  has  made  a  special  study  of  the 
comparison  of  the  physical  qualities  of  the  Japanese  and 
European  races.  Besides,  as  a  physician  in  Tokio  during 
thirty  years,  I  have  had  the  opportunity  of  examining  an 
unusually  large  number  of  Eurasians,  and  I  have  paid  par- 
ticular attention  to  them.  The  result  of  my  observations  is 
that  they  are  a  healthy  set  of  people,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
Bay  that  not  one  of  the  common  arguments  against  them  is 
supported  by  science.  They  are  on  an  average  well  built, 
and  show  no  tendency  to  organic  disease  more  than  Europ- 
eans or  Japanese  do.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  as 
many  of  them  grow  up  under  unfavorable  circumstances, 
the  father  often  having  left  them  with  little  money  to  the 
care  of  a  mother  who  has  no  authority  over  them.  This 
is  a  particularly  important  point  if  the  moral  qualities  are 
considered.  In  Europe,  too,  we  know  that  abandoned  illegiti- 
mate children  very  often  turn  out  badly,  and  a  fair  com- 
parison in usi  take  that  into  serious  consideration.  To  make 
quite  sure  about  the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  of  the 
Eurasian,  I  have  asked  the  opinion  of  the  man  who  is  more 
than  any  other  qualified  to  give  an  authoritative  judgment — 
Mr.  Heinrich,  director  of  the  School  of  the  Morning 
Star.  He  has  had  in  his  classes,  side  by  side,  Europeans, 
Japanese,  and  almost  all  the  male  half-breds  in  Tokio. 
His  opinion  is,  that  if  properly  brought  up  and  well-looked 
after,  the  half-breds  are  morally  and  intellectually  in  no 
way  inferior  to  the  children  of  both  races.  As  a  rule  they 
are  taller  and  more  robust  than  the  Japanese,  and  in  every 
branch  of  learning  they  are  fully  up  to  the  standard  of  their 
fellow-scholars." 

Climate,  diet,  dwelling,  social  environment,  and  a  hundred 
other  things  greatly  affect  human  stature  and  physiognomy. 
In  antiquity,  the  Fins  were  a  branch  of  the  Mongolian  race, 

C    9    ) 


yet  there  is  hardly  any  semblance  of  similarity  between  the 
Fins  of  today  and  the  Mongolians  of  today.  Some  of  the 
races  that  dwell  in  Russia,  Hungary,  and  Hobemia  are  also 
members  of  the  Mongolian  stock,  but  today  they  are  more 
closely  allied  to  the  Caucasian  race  than  to  the  Mongolian. 
Ethnologists  agree  that  the  Koreans  are  of  the  Aryan  stock. 
The  Ainus  who  dwell  in  northern  Japan  are  also  of  Aryan 
origin.  And  yet  owing  to  the  environment  in  which  they 
have  lived  for  centuries  they  are  today  more  of  the  Mon- 
golian type  than  of  the  Caucasian.  "When  we  look  beyond 
the  horizon,  of  the  present  and  far  into  the  ages  that  are  to 
come  we  cannot  but  believe  that  the  hands  of  Providence 
will  gradually '  mold  the  white  and  semi-white  races  of  the 
East  and  the  West  into  one  type,  or  at  least  eliminate  many 
of  the  features  that  today  distinguish  the  Occidental  from 
the  Oriental. 

But  how  about  the  present?  Our  answer  is  simple.  In- 
finite patience,  coupled  with  firm  determination,  good  nature 
backed  with  strong  will,  polite  smile  combined  with  stiff 
backbone,  courtesy  accompanied  with  self-respect  and  sound 
judgment — these  will  take  care  of  the  present  as  far  as 
the  Japanese  are  concerned. 

Professor  Veblen  on  the  Japanese  Race. 

I  have  already  said  more  than  I  started  out  to  say,  and  I 
conclude  with  the  following  quotation  from  a  recent  essay 
entitled  ''The  Opportunity  of  Japan"  written  by  Professor 
Thorstein  Veblen,  of  the  University  of  Missouri: 

"In  the  point  of  their  racial  make-up  the  Japanese  are 
very  much  the  same  as  the  Occidental  nations  from  whom 
they  are  now  borrowing  ways  and  means  and  into  the  midst 
of  whom  they  are  driving  their  way  by  help  of  these  bor- 
rowed ways  and  means. 

"It  is,  of  course,  not  intended  to  claim  that  there  sub- 
sists anything  like  an  identity  of  race,  as  between  the  Japa- 
nese and  the  Christian  nations,  nor  even  a  particularly  near 
or- intimate  relationship;  but  the  run  of  the  well  known 
facts  is  sufficiently  convincing  to  the  effect  that  the  Japanese 
people  readily  fall  into  the  same  ways  of  thinking  and  rea- 
soning, that  they  readily  assimilate  the  same  manner  of 
theoretical  constructions  in  science  and  technology,  that  the 
same  scheme  of  conceptional  values  and  logical  sequence 
carries  conviction  in  Japan  as  in  the  Occident.  Their  in- 
tellectual perspective  is  so  nearly  the  same  that  the  same 
facts,  seen  in  the  same  connection,  are  convincing  to  the 

(    10   ) 


same  effect.  It  need  by  no  means  imply  an  inclusive 
psychological  identity  or  duplication,  but  the  facility  and 
effect  with  which  the  Japanese  are  taking  to  Western  habits 
of  thought  in  matters  of  technology  and  scientific  knowl- 
edge shows  a  sufficiently  convincing  equality  or  equivalence 
between  them  and  their  Western  fellow  men  in  respect  of 
their  intellectual  make-up. 

"This  intellectual  or  psychological  equivalence  will  stand 
out  in  relief  when  the  Japanese  case  is  contrasted  with  what 
lias  befallen  certain  other  peoples,  racially  alien  to  the 
bearers  of  the  Western  culture,  such  as  the  Negro,  Polynesian, 
or  East  Indian.  These  others  have  been  exposed  to  the 
Occidental  technological  system — the  system  of  the  machine 
industry — but  they  have  been  brought  to  no  effectual  com- 
prehension of  the  logic  and  efficiency  of  the  Western  techno- 
logical equipment,  have  not  acquired  or  assimilated  the  drift 
and  bias  of  the  material  science  of  the  West,  and  have,  even 
under  hard  compulsion,  been  unable  to  effect  anything  like 
a  practicable  working  arrangement  with  the  Occidental  sys- 
tem of  mechanical  efficiency  and  economic  control. 

"And  even  as  the  Japanese  show  this  facile  apprehension 
of  Occidental  methods  and  values  in  the  domain  of  material 
knowledge,  so  also  is  there  apparently  a  close  resemblance 
in  point  of  emotional  complexion,  suggested,  e.  g.,  by  the 
dose  similarity  between  the  fedual  system  as  it  has  prevailed 
in  Japan,  and,  in  its  time,  in  Western  Europe.  Similar  ma- 
tt-rial circumstances,  particularly  in  respect  of  the  industrial 
arts,  appear  to  have  induced  similar  institutional  results  and 
a  parallel  range  of  ideals  and  ethical  values,  such  as  would 
presume  a  somewhat  closely  similar  run  of  human  nature  in 
the  two  cases. 

"This  similarity  in  point  of  native  traits,  if  so  it  can  be 
called,  is  due  not  to  an  identity  of  race  but  rather  to  a 
parallelism  in  racial  composition.  Like  the  peoples  of 
Christendom,  and  more  particularly  like  that  group  of  peo- 
ples that  cluster  about  the  North  Sea,  and  that  make  up  tne 
center  of  diffusion  of  the  Western  cuture,  the  Japanese  are, 
racially,  a  hybrid  population.  The  several  racial  elements 
that  go  to  make  up  the  hybrid  mixture  are,  of  course,  not 
the  same  in  the  two  cases  under  comparison,  nor  are  they, 
perhaps,  at  all  nearly  related  in  point  of  racial  derivation. 
But  both  of  these  two  contrasted  populations  alike  show 
that  wide-ranging  variability  of  individuals  that  is  character- 
istic of  hybrid  peoples,  both  in  the  absence  of  uniformity 


in  respect  of  physical  type  and  in  their  relatively  great 
variety  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  endowment,  both  in  de- 
gree and  in  kind.  This  variability  of  these  hybrid  peoples 
becomes  more  obvious  when  they  are  contrasted  with  peoples 
of  relatively  unmixed  stock,  or  even  with  the  average  run 
,of  mankind  at  large.  Indeed,  it  may  be  set  down  as  an 
earmark  of  hybridism.  It  is  a  factor  of  serious  consequence 
for  the  cultural  scheme  of  any  such  population,  particularly 
for  its  stability;  since  such  a  wide-fluctuating  variability  of 
individuals  within  any  given  community  will  give,  in  effect, 
a  large  available  flexibility  of  type,  and  so  will  afford  a 
wide  and  facile  susceptibility  to  new  ideas  and  new  grounds 
of  action. 

"Such  being  the  character  of  the  human  raw  material 
in  and  by  which  the  Japanese  situation  is  to  be  worked  out, 
it  should  presumably  follow  that,  just  as  the  material  and 
matter-of-fact  elements  of  Western  civilization  are  finding 
ready  lodgment  and  fertile  ground  among  them,  so  should 
these  intrusive  matter-of-fact  conceptions  presently,  and 
with  celerity,  induce  the  working  out  of  a  corresponding 
fabric  of  matters  of  imputation — principles  of  conduct,  arti- 
cles of  faith,  social  conventions,  ethical  values.  The  im- 
personal and  materialistic  bias  of  modern  science  and 
technology  has  among  the  Western  peoples,  already  gone 
far  to  dissipate  those  putative  values  on  which  any  feudal 
dnd  autocratic  regime  must  necessarily  rest.  And  since  the 
same  impersonal  and  materialistic  frame  of  mind  proves,  to 
all  appearance,  to  be  characteristic  of  the  Japanese,  they 
should  also  expect  presently  to  experience  its  spiritual,  and 
therefore  its  institutional  consequences." 


.    EYE  TO  EYE. 


By  Benjamin   Ide   Wheeler, 
President   University   of    California. 

Japan  and  the  United  States  must  get  on  together  in 
neighborliness  and  co-operation.  The  fates  of  geography 
and  commerce  make  them  sharers  of  the  Great  Northern 
Ocean.  Down  through  the  coming  centuries  they  must  live 
more  and  more  in  touch  with  each  other.  They  must  share 
and  be  patient;  seek  to  see  each  through  the  other's  eyes, 
yield  a  little,  abate  each  a  little  of  the  full  measure  of 

C  12  ) 


theoretic  right.  They  must  with  deliberate  intent  plan  to 
get  on  together.  TJiey  cannot  afford  to  let  things  drift,  else 
there  will  arise  continual  sources  of  misunderstanding.  They 
inherit  fundamentally  different  traditions.  In  them  meet 
the  two  poles  of  the  historic  world-order.  It  is  not  primar- 
ily a  matter  of  racial  contrast ;  it  is  a  contrast  of  social 
and  economic  standards.  Glossing  over  the  fact  with  thin 
veneers  of  smiles  and  nice  words  and  formal  assurances  is 
sheer  folly,  and  folly  fraught  with  immeasurable  peril  to 
both  parties  and  to  all  the  world.  "What  we  need  is  frank- 
ness of  speech  and  honesty  of  action.  Diplomacy  is  good  as 
an  occasional  sedative,  but  inadequate  as  a  food.  We  must 
face  the  plain  facts.  We  must  see  with  open  eyes  and  con- 
fess with  calm  and  righteous  judgment  the  difficulties  under 
which  we  each  labor  in  reaching  a  basis  of  common  under- 
standing. How  to  understand  each  other's  situation  and 
point  of  view, — that  is  the  problem — a  hard  problem,  but 
there  is  no  other  wray,  except  the  way  of  anger.  And 
anger  settles  nothing.  It  effects  nothing  but  joint  injury. 

Whatever  our  later  misunderstandings  it  is  most  fortun- 
ate that  our  first  introduction  to  each  other  was  favorable 
and  all  the  early  days  of  our  intercourse  most  satisfactory. 
America  will  not  soon  forget  how  trustfully  Japan  gave 
her  her  hand  to  be  led  in  at  the  gates  <>f  Occidental  civiliza- 
tion. Nor  will  Japan  forget  the  sympathy  and  support 
she  received  from  America  in  her  days  of  greatest  stress. 
America  lias  always  entertained  a  feeling  of  real  admira- 
tion for  the  people  of  tin-  Island  Kingdom  and  has  regarded 
their  progress  with  something  of  a  godfather's  pride.  Such 
a  tradition  and  such  a  relationship  constitute  for  either 
people  a  definite  national  asset,  and  cannot  be  lightly 
t In-own  by  the  board. 

We  appreciate  the  wisdom  of  Japan's  consent  to  the 
practical  exclusion  of  Japanese  laborers  through  the  device 
of  withholding  passports  under  what  is  known  as  the 
'•gentlemen's  agreement",  and  we  recognize  the  honorable- 
ness  with  which  Japan  has  carried  out  her  part  of  the  con- 
tract. This  would  seem  to  be  a  fair  example  of  one  nation's 
appreciating  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  situation  of  the 
other,  i.  e.,  of  seeing  things  as  the  other  sees  them.  We 
ask  for  a  continuation  of  that  attitude  of  sympathy.  The 
Japanese  people  surely  understand  that  it  is  not  on  merely 
arbitrary  grounds  that  we  insist  on  the  necessity  of  deny- 
ing admission  to  their  laborers.  If  for  any  reason  the 

C    13   ) 


"gentlemen's  agreement"  should  be  abrogated,  we  should 
find  it  extremely  difficult  to  agree  upon  a  treaty  which 
would  accomplish  the  purpose.  Japan  is  one  of  the  Great 
Powers  of  the  world,  her  people  represent  one  of  the  high- 
est types  of  the  world's  civilization.  They  are  not  un- 
naturally jealous  of  their  position  and  sensitive  regarding 
any  apparent  infringement  of  their  claim.  They  would  not 
welcome  American  legislation  discriminating  against  them 
and  they  certainly  would  not  agree  to  a  treaty  which  by  their 
very  acceptance  of  it  would  constitute  or  seem  to  constitute 
a  documentary  confession  on  their  part  of  oddity,  if  not  of 
inferiority.  We  know  these  things  are  facts,  and  these 
facts  make  up  the  chief  difficulty  of  our  position — a  dif- 
ficulty for  which  we  have  as  yet  found  no  solution,  a  dif- 
ficulty regarding  which  we  earnestly  solicit  the  sympathy 
of  the  Japanese  people.  The  main  reason  why  none  of  the 
measures  looking  toward  exclusion  have  been  adopted  by 
recent  Congresses  is  to  be  found  in  the  unwillingness  of  our 
Government  to  offer  what  might  be  interpreted  as  an  af- 
front to  the  Japanese  people. 

"We  are  hoping,  however,  that  with  the  passage  'of  time 
the  Japanese  people  may  come  to  recognize  that  our  exclus- 
ion policy  is  by  no  means  directed  against  them  as  a  people, 
nor  against  any  people,  but  concerns  a  world-area  wherein 
economic  'conditions  through  age-long  training  and  compact- 
ing have  come  to  be  essentially  different  from  those  pre- 
vailing in  the  sparse-settled  lands  of  the  frontiersmen. 
There  could  be  no  more  convincing  proof  of  this  than  that 
British  Columbia  and  Australia,  constituent  parts  of  an 
Empire  with  which  Japan  is  allied,  agree  entirely  with 
California,  Oregon  and  Washington  as  to  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  exclusion  and  have  adopted  more  drastic  measures 
thereto,  than  have  the  United  States. 

As  regards  California  and  other  Pacific  States,  I  beg 
one  item  of  tolerance.  These  States  are  not  made  up  of 
perverse,  rude  people,  slaves  of  labor  unions  who  have 
arbitrarily  conceived  a  malicious  pleasure  in  misrepresent- 
ing and  opposing  people  from  the  other  side  of  the  sea. 
They  are  rather  to  be  thought  of  as  being  the  Americans 
who  have  had  practical  experience  with  the  problems  in- 
volved in  the  contact  of  East  and  West  and  have  arrived 
at  the  most  sensible  view  regarding  these  problems;  and  it 
will  be  safe  and  reasonable  to  estimate  that  other  Ameri- 
cans, as  fast  as  they  come  to  a  full  understanding  of  the 

C  14  ) 


situation,  will  take  the  same  view. 

So  much  for  my  prayer  that  the  Japanese  may  regard 
with  sympathetic  eye  our  difficulties;  now  I  have  to  admit 
that  in  one  chief  point  the  Japanese  have  good  reason  to 
ask  a  return  of  the  favor.  I  can  see  that  in  spite  of  all 
good  will  the  Japanese  Government  finds  it  increasingly 
difficult  to  explain  to  its  people  our  apparent  discrimina- 
tion against  them.  It  appears  as  if  we  ranked  them  among 
the  secondary  people.  It  is  not  our  intention,  but  if  we 
look  at  the  matter  from  the  eyes  of  the  Japanese,  I  think 
we  cannot  fail  to  see  how  the  national  pride  is  affected  and 
how  we  are  inevitably  convicted  in  their  minds  of  un- 
fairness. They  are  a  strong,  proud  people,  naturally  con- 
scious of  their  achievement,  rightfully  ambitious  of  full  re- 
e'.gnition  as  a  civilized  nation.  We  shall  have  to  listen  to  their 
desire  and  give  it  full  weight.  It  is  no  specific  thing  that 
they  ask — but  only  equal  treatment  among  the  nations. 
In  this  connection  there  commends  itself  to  our  attention 
the  proposal  of  Dr.  (J  ul  irk  (The  American  Japanese  Prob- 
lem), which  admits  from  any  land,  Asiatic  or  European, 
a  certain  fixed  percentage  of  those  from  the  same  land 
who  are  already  naturalized  American  citizens.  This  pro- 
posal lias  the  double  merit  of  avoiding  a  sudden  change  in 
the  proportions  of  immigrants  from  different  countries  ami 
of  treating  all  on  a  common  basis.  I  am  surprised  to  see 
how  little  attention  has  thus  far  been  devoted  to  this  re- 
markable suggestion.  More  will  surely  be  heard  of  it  in 
the  days  to  come,  in  close  conjunction  therewith  will  be 
considered  the  problems  of  naturali/ation  now  forcing  them- 
selves to  attention,  but  whatever  we  consider  and  what- 
ever we  do.  we  must  go  to  our  work  with  the  plain  under- 
standing that  in  one  way  or  other  we  must  get  on  together. 
For  we  an-  neighbors.  From  "America  to  Japan," 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 


C   15  ) 


3.  JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Especially    written    for    the    Japanese-American    News. 

By   Ray   Lyman  Wilbur, 
President  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 

The  broad  and  idealistic  aspirations  of  the  Japanese 
make  them  natural  co-workers  with  the  best  sentiment  of  the 
United  States  in  trying  to  bring  about  more  wholesome 
international  relationships  between  all  nations.  Difference 
in  ancestry  and  race  need  be  no  bar  to  the  creation  of  the 
friendliest  feeling  on  both  sides  of  the  Pacific.  The  rapid 
progress  of  modern  transportation  facilities  is  bringing 
Japan  and  the  United  States  nearer  together  each  year. 
Both  countries  are  bound  to  have  some  clashing  of  interests, 
some  differences  in  ideals,  some  misunderstandings.  Both 
must  live  and  both  must  live  honorably.  Both  certainly 
can  by  mutual  understanding  and  agreement  live  amicably 
together.  A  greater  knowledge  of  Japan  on  the  part  ,  of 
America  and  a  clearer  perception  on  the  part  of  Japan 
of  the  attitude  of  the  American  laborer  towards  his  desired 
standard  of  living  will  help  much  to  keep  both  ready  and 
willing  to  be  patient,  considerate  and  forebearing.  America 
has  welcomed  those  immigrants  that  are  readily  assimilated 
into  its  life,  has  regretted  the  forced  immigration  of  the 
African  races,  and  now  looks  askance,  particularly  while 
almost  gorged  with  its  present  raw  material,  at  the  possi- 
bility of  additions  from  Asia.  The  modern  rise  of  the 
Japanese  made  possible  by  the  secure  foundations  of  the 
past  has  been  too  rapid  to  be  grasped  by  the  outsider. 
Patience,  time,  mutual  knowledge,  frankness,  the  striving 
for  high  ideals,  will  gradually  settle  problems  that  will 
only  be  accentuated  by  haste,  bitterness  or  displays  of 
force. 


C   16  ) 


4.  OUR    RELATIONS    WITH    JAP  AN,  X, 

Especially  written  for  the  Japanese- American  News. 

By  Arthur  I.  Pope, 
Professor  of  Philosophy,  University  of  California. 

For  more  than  fifty  years  America  enjoyed  from  the 
Japanese  people  and  government  a  degree  of  good  will  that 
lias  rarely  been  accorded  to  one  nation  by  another.  Next  to 
their  own  country,  the  Japanese  people  honored  and  loved 
America,  and  they  enthusiastically  expressed  this  friendship 
on  many  occasions.  On  their  side  the  American  people  in 
turn  profoundly  admired  the  rapid  and  easy  mastery  of 
West ci'ii  civilization  which  the  Japanese  displayed,  our  gov- 
ernment lost  no  opportunity  to  show  its  friendliness,  our 
artists  and  cultivated  people  made  almost  a  cult  of  Japanese 
art,  and  when  Japan  fought  with  Russia,  the  Americans  as 
a  people  hailed  each  victory  with  enthusiasm,  deploring  each 
reverse,  honoring  every  hero  almost  as  if  their  very  own. 

These  happy  relations  have  been  painfully  and  need- 
lessly marred.  In  place  of  the  unanimous  friendliness  and 
admiration  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  we  find  among  them 
despite  forbearance  and  determined  hopefulness  considerable 
subdued  hostility,  and  an  annoyed  perplexity.  In  place  of  the 
concord  of  unqualified  admiration  and  good  will  from 
America,  we  find  in  many  (piarters — thought  frequently 
more  noisy  and  conspicuous  than  representative — the  same 
suspicion,  plus  a  more  active  and  determined  hostility.  This 
situation,  although  not  nearly  so  fundamental  and  serious  as 
it  is  often  pictured,  is  none  the  less  sufficiently  deplorable 
to  call  for  determined  diagnosis  and  equally  determined 
remedy.  There  is  too  little  international  good  will  in  the 
world  for  any  of  it  to  be  wasted.  There  should  be  continued 
searching  of  hearts  until  all  the  causes  for  this  mutual  an- 
noyance and  suspicion  be  discovered  and  removed  and  a  noble 
national  friendship  completely  restored. 

In  the  discussion  of  this  rather  delicate  matter  there  has 
been  a  "vnerally  praiseworthy  demand  for  frankness.  But 
frankness  has  generally  been  most  popular  when  it  is  at  the 
expense  of  the  other  fellow.  Too  often  frankness  is  but  a 
virtuous  cloak  assumed  to  enable  one  to  say  a  lot  of  dis- 
agreeable things  about  a  neighbor,  which  if  undisguised 
would  be  forbidden  by  common  politeness.  But  frankness 
like  charity  ought  to  begin  at  home,  and  I  have  accordingly 

C   17  ) 


thought  it  worth  while  to  call  attention  again  to  some  of  the 
well  known  but  not  yet  universally  acknowledged  failings 
of  the  Americans  in  their  dealings  with  the  Japanese. 

There  was  one  unstable  feature  about  the  rather  idyllic 
early  friendship  between  America  and  Japan.  It  did  not 
rest  upon  any  clear  or  comprehensive  knowledge  of  one 
another.  That  indispensable  basis  for  a  sound  and  perma- 
nent friendship  was  pretty  much  lacking.  Enthusiasm  and 
sentiment  are  too  fragile  and  temporary  to  ensure  perma- 
nent regard  surviving  every  strain.  Perhaps  out  of  the 
present  annoyance  will  issue  a  fuller  knowledge  that  shall 
ultimately  guarantee  a  maturer  and  more  solid  friendship. 

The  fact  that  the  anti-Japanese  agitation  was  in- 
augurated by  a  criminal  in  co-operation  with  a  lunatic 
furthered  by  labor  agitators  and  sustained  by  a  yellow  press 
ought  in  itself  have  been  enough  to  damn  it;  but  the  few 
sparks  of  legitimate  difficulty  and  annoyance  fell  into  the 
tinder  of  ignorance;  hence  all  the  trouble.  Accurate,  im- 
partial, well  diffused  knowledge  would  have  rendered  this 
entire  propaganda  abortive.  For  the  American  hostility  to 
the  Japanese,  such  as  it  is,  is  in  the  main  traceable  to 
ignorance  and  misinformation;  not  only  ignorance  of  Japan 
itself,  its  wonderful  history,  its  unsurpassable  art,  its  charm- 
ing and  poetic  people  and  the  many  things  that  they  do 
better  than  we  do,  but  very  frequently  to  actual  dense 
ignorance  of  the  very  things  complained  of.  The  whole 
story  of  the  controversy  shows  how  dangerous  ignorance  is, 
how  upon  .the  slightest  provocation — such  as  for  example 
legitimate  competition — ignorance  breeds  prejudice,  while 
prejudice  in  its  turn  fosters  a  stupid  and  hideous  brood  of 
falsehood  and  hatred. 

Such  a  situation  is  always  rendered  the  more  alarming, 
because  of  the  number  of  persons  ready  to  profit  by  such 
misunderstandings,  who  through  malice  or  hope  of  personal 
advantage  or  both  seek  to  inflame  the  needless  quarrel,  some 
by  crawling  innuendo,  some  by  deliberate  fabrication,  such  as 
the  recent  newspaper  yarns  about  the  Japanese  Bernhardi. 
There  are  still  certain  newspapers  that  industriously  spread 
lies,  and  play  upon  fear;  there  are  still  unscrupulous  or 
ignorant  politicians  that  have  not  hesitated  to  make  the 
most  silly  and  insulting  remarks.  Would  that  these  false 
prophets  and  faithless  servants  who  have  sown  the  seeds  of 
hatred  and  misunderstanding  alone  might  reap  the  whirl- 
wind. 

C  18  ) 


Let  us  take  a  few  examples  of  dangerous  trouble-breed- 
ing- ignorance.  The  word  was  pretty  generally  passed  about 
at  the  time  of  the  Anti-Alien  Land  Legislation  that,  despite 
the  "gentlemen's  agreement,"  hordes  of  Japanese  were  still 
ferreting  their  way  into  the  country.  No  shred  of  evidence 
has  ever  been  cited  in  behalf  of  this  assertion,  chiefly  for 
the  simple  reason  that  there  isn't  any,  for,  as  .everyone 
knows  who  has  made  any  effort  to  inform  himself,  there 
has  been  a  steady  decrease  of  Japanese  in  California  since 
1908,  the  total  reduction,  according  to  the  official  figures, 
bring  4408. 

The  preposterous  charge  that  wicked  Japanese  men  were 
flooding  the  primary  schools  of  San  Francisco  and  corrupt- 
lie  morals  of  our  children  turned  out  to  be  ridiculous, 
not  to  say  contemptible  calumny;  but  the  weird  tale  was 
and  is  still  believed  by  many,  and  unjustly  created  much 
hard  feeling. 

That  the  Japanese  are  paupers,  that  they  are  dirty  and 
shiftless,  has  been  charged  and  believed  in  some  quarters, 
although  the  truth  is  wholly  to  the  contrary.  The  accusa- 
tion of  extreme  sexual  immorality  was  almost  as  ill-founded, 
and  has  been  well  refuted  by  Dr.  (Julick,  as  well  as  Mr. 
Woehlke's  reckless  charges  about  the  dishonest  failures  of 
the  Japanese  banks.  That  the  Japanese  were  everywhere 
underbidding  American  laborers  was  sufficiently  refuted  in 
the  Macken/ie  report,  yet  the  many  union  laborers  in  the 
building  trades  and  shops  who  have  never  felt  any  competi- 
tion from  the  Japanese  seem  violently  possessed  of  devils 
whenever  the  subject  is  mentioned.  Americans  are  not  sup- 
posed to  be  gullible,  but  when,  since  the  age  of  hobgoblins 
and  witches,  have  so  many  supposedly  intelligent  people 
been  taken  in  by  a  wild  tale  as  have  been  by  the  stories  of 
the  thousands  of  Japanese  reservists  drilling  at  night  in 
secret  places.  Yet  this  really  comical  story  has  been  re- 
peated with  solemn  face  in  halls  of  legislation  and  thousands 
of  Americans  have  believed  it.  Surely  this  shows  a  de- 
termined eagerness  to  believe  anything  bad  or  alarming 
about  the  Japanese.  Again  ignorance  bred  suspicion  and 
hostility. 

More  plausible  but  equally  unfounded  has  been  the 
general  conviction  that  a  race,  particularly  an  Oriental  race, 
is  a  mysterious  unchanging  entity,  incapable  of  permanent 
and  happy  adjustment,  utterly  incapable  of  assimilation  to 

C   19  ) 


American  ways  and  ideals.  But  Ethnology  and  Race  Psy- 
chology long  ago  consigned  this  prejudice  to  limbo  along 
with  theory  that  any  particular  race  has  any  innate  superior 
capacity. 

The  charge  that  Japan  has  closed  the  door  in  Marichuria 
to  American  trade  originated  with  some  disappointed  Amer- 
ican traders  who  Jiad  not  the  energy  to  make  the  adjust- 
ments necessary  to  succeed  in  that  rather  difficult  market. 
But  discrimination  there  is  none,  nor  has  there  been  any. 
But  it  seems  that  in  some  quarters  a  charge  against  the 
Japanese  has  only  to  bg  made  to  be  believed  and  passed  on 
with  interest. 

Could  anything  be  more  grotesque  than  an  American 
complaint  of  the  Japanese  business  morals?  America,  the 
home  of  graft,  the  country  where  municipal  corruption  has 
been  brought  to  a  fine  art,  where  there  is  a  lucrative  profes- 
sion devoted  to  instruct  business  how  to  evade  the  law, 
where  state  supreme  courts  have  sold  verdicts,  where  gigan- 
tic public  utilities  like  the  New  Haven,  Eock  Island,  St. 
Louis  &  San  Francisco  railroads  were  ruthlessly  burglarized, 
where  widows  and  orphans  have  been  defrauded  through 
notorious  insurance  scandals,  where  legislatures  have  been 
bought  and  sold  and  franchises  stolen — can  such  a  country 
with  such  a  beam  of  unrighteousness  in  its  own  eye  afford 
to  look  for  a  mote  of  dishonesty  in  any  neighbor's  eye?  In 
truth  our  business  morality  has  made  us  a  hissing  and  a 
byword  among  the  nations,  and  if  humiliation  does  not 
suffice  to  stop  the  mouth  of  our  complaint  against  others 
who  in  a  retail  way  may  exemplify  our  wholesale  sins,  at 
least  our  sense  of  humor  ought  to  silence  us.  Indeed  had 
they  chosen  to  take  it,  the  Japanese  could  have  found  ready 
to  hand  a  fearful  retort.  Would  we  who  have  had  to  bear 
so  much  false  witness  against  our  neighbor  have  over- 
looked or  refrained  had  we  a  similar  opportunity? 

Not  to  review  the  innumerable  examples  of  misinforma- 
tion and  prejudice,  such  as  the  repeatedly  exposed  fake 
about  the  Chinese  tellers  in  Japanese  banks,  how  many  Amer- 
icans who  have  glibly  condemned  the  recent  Japanese  nego- 
tiations with  China  have  taken  the  trouble  to  accurately 
inform  themselves  concerning  those  demands  and  the  history 
behind  them.  They  are  in  fact  surprisingly  innocent  when 
examined  apart  from  headlines.  How  many  have  stopped  to 
consider  that  a  corrupt,  inefficient,  tyrant-ridden,  rebellion- 
torn  China  is  an  extreme  menace  to  the  safety  of  Japan, 

C   20   ) 


particularly  in  view  of  the  quite  unscrupulous  and  un- 
justified aggressions  of  European  nations  who  have  not 
hesitated  to  use  China  as  a  basis  for  trouble  making.  Only 
with  a  developed,  fortified  and  wisely  guided  China  can 
there  be  permanent  peace  in  the  Orient.  We  who  made 
war  on  Spain  because  of  the  injustice  and  chronic  disorder 
at  our  doors,  we  who  proclaim  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  cry 
"America  for  the  Americans,"  how  could  we  do  otherwise 
if  we  were  fair-minded,  than  approve  of  the  Japanese  policy 
of  "Asia  for  the  Asiatics"?  And  yet  even  the  display  of 
force  necessary  to  carry  out  the  Japanese  program  was  so 
repugnant  to  the  majority  of  the  Japanese  people  that  the 
ministry  was  nearly  overthrown. 

Yet  if  there  are  many  essential  conditions  of  the  prob- 
lem which  the  average  American  is  ignorant  of,  if  his 
ignorance  has  been  a  receptive  and  productive  soil  for  un- 
founded charges  with  their  consequent  train  of  suspicion 
and  hostility,  culminating  as  they  did  in  an  unjust,  dis- 
criminatory, unnecessary  land  law — a  law,  by  the  way,  quite 
at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  paramount  treaty  obligation 
—there  are  also  some  features  of  the  question  which  the 
average  Japanese  may  overlook.  If  it  is  a  mystery  how  the 
average  level-headed  Americans  could  become  so  agitated  over 
a  mythical  race  issue,  the  Japanese  should  remember  that  we 
have  not  yet  recovered  from  all  the  bitter  waste  and  con- 
fusion of  a  dreadful  conflict  over  a  race  issue.  In  the  be- 
ginning there  were  only  a  few  thousand  negroes,  yet  from 
apparently  innocent  beginnings  came  forth  a  monstrous 
problem  that  well  nigh  wrecked  the  nation  and  even  now 
sorely  perplexes  us.  To  the  clear  minded  there  is  no 
analogy  between  the  two  situations,  yet  the  memory  of  the 
first  is  still  too  agitating  to  permit  of  general  clear  think- 
ing on  the  subject  of  a  race  issue. 

There  is  one  other  source  of  uneasiness  perhaps  not  so 
readily  dispelled.  It  is  reported  here  in  America,  how 
justly  it  is  not  easy  to  determine,  that  there  is  a  strong  and 
growing  party  in  Japan  who  profess  admiration  for  the 
militaristic  philosophy  that  has  of  late  been  associated  with 
the  name  of  Germany.  Whether  this  still  numerically  small 
group  is  relatively  any  more  powerful  than  a  similar  group 
in  this  country  is  not  clear.  At  any  rate  one  thing  is 
pn-tty  certain.  The  average  American  hates  militarism  and 
all  its  works  with  utter  loathing.  While  it  is  true  that 

C   21    ) 


America  has  in  the  last  century,  owing  to  very  special  con- 
ditions, largely  increased  her  territory,  none  the  less  the 
Americans  are  not  an  aggressive  people.  They  have  no  taste 
for  conquest.  They  regard  aggrandizement  by  force,  oppor- 
tunism, chauvinism,  real  politik,  the  will  to  power,  and  all 
the  hateful  paraphernalia  of  violence  and  scheming  with 
abhorrence.  Military  power  we  as  a  people  think  of  as  a 
last  resource,  and  the  mere  glorification  of  force  for  its  own 
sake  we  regard  as  the  pastime  of  fools  and  .lunatics,  or,  at 
best,  of  narrow  minded,  dehumanized  specialists.  If  there 
is  a  growing  militaristic  sentiment  in  Japan,  and  certain 
natural  causes  favor  it,  the  knowledge  of  this  sentiment  is 
bound  to  make  Americans  uneasy.  I  do  not  now  refer  to 
the  doctrine  of  defensive  preparedness — though  some  of  our 
vociferous  and  fanatical  advocates  of  preparedness  might 
reasonably  cause  concern  in  Japan — but  rather  to  the  ap- 
proval of  a  certain  set  of  unprincipled  methods  which  are 
generally  known  as  militarism.  For  this  dragon  there  should 
be  no  quarter  anywhere  in  the  world. 

Less  justifiable,  but  equally  real,  is  the  fantastic  dread 
among  the  less  intelligent  classes  of  Asia's  millions  of 
^potential  soldiers.  That  there  is  no  motive  for  Asia  to  try 
to  overrun  and  conquer  the  Western  world,  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  character  or  history  of  the  Chinese  or  Hindus 
or  Japanese  to  suggest  that  they  would  ever  want  to  at- 
tempt such  a  thing,  even  if  they  could  see  any  prospect  of 
success;  these  are  potent  considerations  quite  lost  to  those 
who  are  agitated  by  mere  numbers.  Again  it  is  ignorance 
that  harbors  this  folly,  and  a  really  enlightened  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Orient,  and  a  more  honorable  and  generous 
policy  on  the  part  of  the  European  nations  having  business 
in  the  Orient,  will  suffice  to  lay  this  ghost  forever.  ^As  Com- 
missioner Harada  well  said  at  a  recent  dinner  given  to  the 
apanese  Commissioners  at  the  University  of  California, 
The  only  Yellow  Peril  is  the  peril  of  Yellow  Journalism/jJ 

If  ignorance  is  the  root  evil  of  the  whole  issue,  knowledge 
will  be  the  radical  cure,  and  an  unremitting  campaign  of 
education  for  both  nations,  but  more  especially  for  America, 
will  lay  a  basis  for  a  sound  and  permanent  friendship 
that  can  never  be  disturbed  by  innuendo  or  falsehood.  Sur- 
prising as  it  may  seem  to  many  complacent  Americans, 
America  has  a  great  deal  to  learn  from  and  about  Japan. 
In  proportion  as  we  do  learn  in  just  that  proportion  will 
the  silly  and  mendacious  stories  about  the  Japanese  cease 

(   22  ) 


to  have  currency,  and  will  ceas§  to  breed  needless  suspicion 
and  hostility.  In  proportion  as  we  know  Japan  will  we 
respect  and  honor  her.  With  mutual  good  will,  born  of 
mutual  knowledge,  every  difficulty  can  be  settled  readily 
Mini  prejudice  dispersed.  Profitable  co-operation  will  take 
the  place  of  jealousy  and  distrust,  and  an  interchange  of 
material  and  cultural  goods  be  promoted  which  shall  favor- 
ably affect  the  destinies  of  both  nations. 


f.  THE  JAPANESE  QUESTION  IN  AMERICA. 

Especially    irriiffH    for    the    Japam  x/  -American    News. 

By   Walter  Macarthur. 

(Mr.  Macdrthiir  was  for  several  u«trs  editor  of  the  Coast 
Scannn.'s  Journal  and  is  i>ron\in<nt  in  Hie  labour  movement 
in  California.  He  is  an  iu/hinitial  member  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Party,  and  is  at  present  a  Shipping  Commissioner 
for  San  Francisco.) 


The  movement  for  Asiatic  exclusion  is  based  chiefly  upon 
economic  grounds.  There  is,  of  course,  a  racial  aspect  of  the 
question.  Tliis  latter  phase,  in  the  judgment  of  many. per- 
sons, lias  assumed  proport i-ons  that  overshadow  the  economic 
eonsiderations  involved.  It  is  in  this  connection  that  we 
find  the  chief  source  of  the  agitation  that  has  taken  place, 
and  which  has  tended  to  create  bad  feeling  and  misunder- 
standing, with  the  result  of  obscuring  the  real  question  at 
issue. 

In  discussing  the  racial  characteristics  of  the  Japanese 
people  much  has  been  said  which,  whether  true  or  not, 
might  better  have  been  left  unsaid,  and  which,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  is  not  susceptible  of  proof.  No  one,  I  take  it, 
will  deny  the  fact  that  racial  differences  exist  between  the 
peoples  of  the  Orient  and  the  Occident.  As  to  the  extent 
of  these  differences,  their  character,  and  the  effect  of  a 
possible  admixture  upon  either  people,  there  is  much  room 
for  discussion,  but  very  little  prospect  of  arriving  at  any 
definite  conclusion. 

The  very  uncertainty  of  the  problem  gave  opportunity 
for  the  exploitation  of  theories  and  the  assertion  of  dogmas. 
This  opportunity  was  taken  full  advantage  of,  no  doubt 
honestly  in  most  instances,  and  in  others  with  more  than  a 
suspicion  of  interested  motive,  apart  from  the  welfare  of 
those  immediately  concerned. 

(   23   ) 


In  one  instance,  a  certain  newspaper,  with  a  well- 
established  reputation  as  an  opponent  of  every  movemeni  for 
the  promotion  of  the  public  interests,  Constituted  itself  the 
especial  champion  of  Japanese  exclusion.  The  friends  of 
that  movement  naturally  availed  themselves  of  this  powerful 
influence.  Being  unable,  of  course,  to  direct  the  policy 
of  their  new-found  champion,  they  were  unwittingly  made 
a  party  to  views  and  suggestions,  and  even  to,  actions, 
which  they  did  not  approve,  but  for  which  they  were 
naturally,  and  in  a  sense  rightly  held  responsible. 

In  another  instance,  no  less  an  authority  than  the  then 
President  of  the  United  States  assumed  an  attitude,  with 
reference  especially  to  the  " school  question",  which  had 
then  reached  an  acute  stage,  that  was  calculated  to  create 
the  deepest  resentment  among  the  people  of  the  West,  with- 
out regard  to  their  views  concerning  the  wisdom  of  the 
course  adopted  by  the  avowed  exclusionists. 

These  are  but  examples  of  the  state  of  things  that  existed 
during  the  critical  period  of  the  negotiations  for  a  restric- 
tion of  immigration  from  Japan.  It  may  safely  be  said 
that  whatever  danger  lay  in  these  negotiations  was  due 
more  to  the  bad  temper  created  by  misrepresentation  and 
the  false  attitude  of  these  powerful  factors  in  the  case  than 
by  anything  directly  related  to  the  real  issue  in  hand. 

In  short,  the  real  issue  was  in  danger  of  being  entirely 
lost  sight  of,  so  that  the  outcome  turned  upon  a  question 
of  national  pride  rather  than  upon  the  common-sense  eco- 
nomic proposition  really  involved.  This  proposition  would 
not  of  itself  have  led  to  any  serious  misunderstanding  on 
either  side. 

I  have  always  assumed,  and  still  assume,  that  the 
J.apanese  people  would,  if  given  an  opportunity  to  get  the 
true  point  of  view  of  the  American  people,  agree  with  us 
that  a  restriction,  or  even  exclusion,  of  Japanese  laborers 
would  be  advantageous  both  to  them  and  to  us.  It  was  the 
injection  of  the  idea  of  racial  inferiority — an  idea  that 
had  no  place  in  the  minds  of  any  honest  exclusionist — that 
led  to  the  misunderstanding  and  created  a  breach  between 
the  two  peoples. 

I  believe  that  there  are  racial  differences  between  the 
American  and  the  Japanese  peoples,  and  that  these  differ- 
ences must  be  taken  into  consideration  in  this  connection  in 
order  that  the  future  welfare  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  may  be  safeguarded  against  any  injurious  admixture, 

C   24   ) 


either  in  the  family  or  in  the  political  life  of  the  country. 
I  do  not,  however,  assume  any  Superiority  on  one  hand  or 
inferiority  on  the  other. 

I  am  perfectly  willing  to  accept  the  theory  that  we  have 
nothing:  to  fear  at  the  hands  of  an  inferior  people.  If  this 
theory  be  correct,  it  follows,  that  our  fears  of  Japanese  immi- 
gration arise  from  an  instinctive  conception  of  superiority 
on  the  part  of  the  latter.  But,  all  theories  aside,  the  fact 
remains  that  any  influx  of  labor  coming  from  any  part  of 
the  world  should  be  guarded  against  in  view  of  the  present 
state  of  the  so-called  labor  market. 

How  to  prevent  an  influx  of  labor  is  a  question  not  of 
national  dignity,  of  personal  pride,'  cf  inferiority,  or  of 
superiority,  but  simply  of  common-sense  practical  legislation, 
based  upon  well  understood  rules  of  legal  precedure. 

We  all  agree,  I  believe,  that  any  measure  which  shall 
regulate  immigration  in  such  manner  as  to  conserve  the 
right  of  the  American  people  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  country  and  to  develop  their  national  life  in 
accordance  with  their  own  ideals  and  traditions,  may  not 
only  be  rightly  sought  by  the  American  people,  but  should 
also  be  accepted  by  the  peoples  of  all  other  countries  as 
fundamental  to  the  progress  of  the  nation. 

I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  virtue  of  face-to-face  and 
shoulder-to-shoulder  association.  I  think  that  in  all  cases 
much  more  may  be  achieved  by  such  means  than  by  mass 
meetings,  pronunciamentos  and  ultimata.  A  few  short  and 
honest,  but  not  ugly,  words  will  go  further  in  harmonizing 
tin-  relations  between  honest  and  intelligent  men  than  any 
amount  of  the  other  sort  of  thing. 


CALIFORNIA    AND    THE    JAPANESE. 

Especially  written  for  the  Japanese-American  News. 

By  George  Malcolm  Stratton, 
Professor  of  Psychology,  University  of  California. 

My  regret  is  deep  that  I  have  had  no  opportunity  to 
know  the  land  of  Japan ;  but  I  am  glad  that  even  here 
in  America  I  have  been  able  to  know  something  of  1 1n- 
spirit of  that  country.  And  this  knowledge  had  its  be- 
ginning in  an  early  friendship.  When  a  student  at  Yale 
it  was  my  good  fortune  to  become  acquainted  with  Dr. 

C    25   ) 


Rikizo  Nakashima,  now  a  distinguished  member  of  the  fac- 
ulty of  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokyo.  And  he  told  me 
much  about  his  native  land;  but,  better  still,  he  himself 
was  so  keen  of  mind,  so  sensitive  morally,  and  withal  so 
modest  and  kind,  that  from  that  hour  I  never  could  feel 
aught  but  respect  and  admiring  sympathy  for  what  lay  in 
the  Japanese  character  at  its  best. 

Thus  begun,  this  kindly  feeling  has  been  strengthened 
by  all  that  I  since  have  learned,  and  latest  of  all  by  the 
impression  gained  at  the  Fair  in  San  Francisco  during  the 
months  that  now  are  closing. 

For  we  of  California  >cannot  but  discern  an  especial 
grace  in  the  act  of  the  Japanese  in  participating  so  heartily 
in  the  Exposition,  and  in  giving  from  their  exhibit  so  gen- 
erously to  the  University  of  California.  Such  acts  show  a 
spirit  as  admirable  as  it  is  rare  in  the  intercourse  of  nations. 
The  world  needs  that  there  shall  pass  across  its  govern- 
mental boundaries  acts  of  so  true  gentility. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  most  earnestly  that  my  own  State  of 
California  will  in  due  time  reveal  a  like  quality  of  conduct. 
I  cannot  but  feel  that  in  restricting  the  privileges  of  the 
Japanese  freely  to  acquire  land,  her  act,  under  the  circum- 
stances, was  entirely  without  justification.  The  Japanese 
government  had  already  agreed — and,  I  think,  with  wis- 
dom,— to  control  the  amount  and  kind  of  its  emigration  to 
America.  And  Professor  Millis,  in  his  recent  and  able 
study  entitled  ' '  The  Japanese  Problem  in  the  United  States, ' ' 
finds  no  reason  whatever  to  doubt  the  fidelity  with  which 
Japan  has  kept  her  agreement  with  our  government.  Indeed 
in  her  desire  to  observe  this  agreement  beyond  its  mere 
letter,  she  has  also  controlled  her  emigration  to  Canada  and 
Mexico,  lest  her  people  might  thus  indirectly  enter  our 
land.  The  result  of  this  care  is  that  fewer  Japanese  are 
entering  than  are  leaving  the  United  States. 

Now  this  check  was  in  operation  before  the  passage  of 
the  California  land-law,  and  consequently  that  law  cannot 
with  any  justice  be  judged  necessary  to  prevent  the  State 
from  being  "flooded"  with  Japanese.  The  needlessness  of 
the  act  is  already  recognized  by  many  Calif ornians ;  and  it 
is  my  earnest  hope  that  their  number  will  increase  until 
the  State  government  will  finally  retrace  its  unfortunate 
step.  For  California  is  in  a  false  position,  and  one  that 
needlessly  irritates  the  Japanese  both  here  and  in  their 
own  country.  There  are  other  ways,  as  I  shall  point  out, 

C   26  ) 


in  which  the  act  of  the  California  Legislature  may  possibly 
in  time  be  made  of  no  effect;  but  for  the  honor  of  the  State, 
in  which  as  a  native  I  take  an  especial  pride,  I  hope  that 
she  will  of  her  own  free  choice  repeal  her  unhappy  legis- 
lation. 

Our  National  Congress  freely  and  without  pressure  from 
without  annulled  its  own  act  regarding  the  tolls  of  the 
Panama  Canal,  because  it  seemed  to  many  Americans  to  be 
of  doubtful  propriety  in  view  of  our  treaty  with  England. 
And  even  so  we  must  hope  that  in  the  end  the  Legislature 
of  California  will  see  a  higher  honor  in  the  repeal  of  its 
own  unjustified  act.  (The  time,  the  great  war,  is  educating 
us  all  to  a  sense  of  international  responsibility,  to  a  greater 
readiness  to  give  weight  to  the  claims  of  those  without.  The 
times  make  us  aware  that  each  nation,  and  each  portion  of 
the  nation,  such  as  the  State  of  California,  must  work  with 
a  will  for  the  great  ends  of  justice  and  order  and  the  respect 
of  nations  beyond  our  own. 

A  repeal  by  California  herself,  as  I  have  already  said, 
would  be  most  desired  by  those  who  are  jealous  of  her 
honor.  But  if  by  some  blindness  the  State  should  stand 
doggedly  where  she  is.  then  there  are  at  least  two  possi- 
bilities which  may  bring  relief.  The  one  is,  the  plan  sug- 
d  by  Dr.  (Julick:  For  the  limitation  of  immigration 
according  to  the  number  of  persons  foreign  born  already 
in  our  country;  and  for  the  admission  to  citizenship  of  all 
those  personally  fit  for  the  privilege,  without  regard  to  race. 
By  making  it  possible  for  the  Japanese  to  acquire  citizen- 
ship, this  WMU Id  meet  the  difficulty  created  by  the  Cali- 
fornia law.  For  this  law  restricts  the  privilege  merely  of 
those  not  eligible  to  citi/enship ;  and  should  the  Japanese 
once  be  made  eligible,  then  by  that  very  fact  they  would 
escape  the  prohibitions  of  the  law. 

Another  mode  of  relief  is  being  urged  by  ex-President 
Tal't,  who  would  have  all  matters  affecting  the  rights  of 
aliens  within  the  various  States  of  the  Union  taken  from 
the  control  of  the  States  and  placed  under  the  care  of  the 
National  government.  Such  a  change  is  greatly  needed;  for 
as  matters  are  at  present,  the  foreign  relations  of  the  entire 
country  may  be  imperilled  by  some  local  legislation  and 
local  feeling.  Questions  that  vitally  affect  the  nation  as  a 
whole,  as  do  those  of  the  rights  of  aliens,  should  be  decided 
by  the  nation,  and  not  by  a  particular  State. 

C  27  ) 


In  a  situation  such  as  this,  with  all  its  legal  complica- 
tions, the  American  friends  of  Japan  appreciate  the  self- 
control  which  she  has  shown.  Wise  indeed  are  the  recent 
words  of  Baron  Shibusawa  when,  in  speaking  of  this  prob- 
lem in  California,  he  said:  "In  my  judgment  all  that  is 
needed  there  is  mutual  concession  and  a  measure  of  patience 
on  the  part  of  both."  The  continued  patience,  the  continued 
expectation  that  soon  or  late  the  sense  of  justice  of  the 
Americans  will  find  expression, — this  on  the  part  of  the 
Japanese  seems  to  me  in  every  way  worthy  of  a  high- 
minded  nation.  Japan's  readiness  to  act  with  courtesy  and 
good  will  even  to  the  particular  State  that  had  been  least 
careful  of  Japanese  sensibilities,  must  gain  for  her  a  still 
larger  friendship.  She  has  been  wise,  too,  in  not  pressing 
upon  us,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  her  own  view  of  her 
people's  rights.  She  has  trusted  to  the  healing  influence, 
the  wisdom-giving  influence,  of  time.  The  words  she  has 
occasionally  uttered,  as  in  that  notable  collection  of  papers 
by  many  of  her  distinguished  men,  called  "Japan  to 
America,"  will  surely  contribute  to  this  healing.  Those  who 
have  at  heart  the  interest  and  dignity  of  the  United  States 
cannot  but  trust  that  America  as  a  whole,  and  every  part 
of  America,  will  in  all  things  prove,  worthy  of  the  respect 
of  her  excellent  and  great  neighbor  across  the  sea. 


7. THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  JAPAN. 

Especially  written  for  the  Japanese-American  News. 

By  James  W.  Mullen, 
Editor  "Labour  Clarion,"  San  Francisco. 

It  is  the  desire  of  the  American  labor  movement  that 
sincerely  harmonious  relations  be  maintained  between  the 
governments  of  the  •  United  States  and  Japan,  just  as  it 
desires  the  friendship  and  co-operation  of  all  other  people 
in  the  work  of  lifting  all  humankind  up  to  a  broader, 
brighter  and  happier  existence. 

The  labor  movement  is  as  broad  as  the  earth  and  wel- 
comes the  opportunity  to  be  of  service  to  the  workers  of 
every  clime  without  regard  to  race,  color  or  creed.  It  is 
insistent  that  improved  conditions,  once  established,  shall 
never  be  torn  down,  and  that  the  leveling  process  in  ad- 
justing inequalities  between  sections  shall  always  be  upward 

<  28  ) 


to  the  altitude  of  the  higher,  and  never  downward  to  the 
lower.  To  this  end  it  directs  its  energies. 

The  American  workers  have  struggled  through  long  years; 
of  bitter  strife  in  building  up  the  conditions  that  surround 
them  in  their  daily  life,  and  very  naturally  they  propose  to 
guard  the  conditions  for  which  they  have  paid  such  a  price 
with  zealous  care.  Out  of  this  feeling  has  grown  the  present 
problem  that  now  clamors  for  solution. 

The  Japanese  workers  who  came  to  our  shores  were 
willing  to  work  longer  hours  and  for  less  pay  than  were 
the  toilers  already  here,  and  this  had  a  tendency  to  break 
down  trade  union  rules  and  lower  the  established  standard 
of  living.  To  this  the  American  worker  most  strenuously 
objected  and  began  to  call  for  restriction  of  the  immigra- 
tion from  Japan.  The  objection  of  the  American  worker  to 
the  Japanese  was  not  based  upon  racial  ground.  It  was 
economic.  The  racial  question,  of  course,  has  since  been 
injected  into  the  issue  by  designing  persons,  and  has  caused 
much  bad  feeling  between  the  two  peoples,  but  labor's 
objection  still  remains  an  economic  one. 

It  has  been  the  experience  of  the  organized  workers  of 
the  world  that  the  better  men  know  each  other  the  stronger 
grows  the  respect  of  each  for  the  other,  and  it  is  the  hope 
of  the  American  toiler  that  in  some  such  way  may  be 
found  a  solution  for  the  problems  that  now  cause  friction 
and  discord  between  the  people  of  the  North  American 
continent  and  those  of  Japan. 

The  co  m  in. cr  to  Hi  is  country  of  the  two  representatives 
of  the  Japanese  workers,  B.  Suzuki  and  S.  Yoshimatsu,  as 
fraternal  delegates  to  our  conventions,  and  the  exchanging 
of  views  and  opinions  between  these  men  and  representa- 
tives of  American  trade  unions,  has  done  much  to  clear  the 
atmosphere  and  arrive  at  a  better  understanding  as  to  the 
aims  and  desires  of  the  peoples  on  both  sides  of  the  Pacific. 

The  American  worker  is  constantly  confronted  with  a 
problem  of  unemployment  and  is  endeavoring  to  limit  immi- 
gration, not  only  from  Japan,  but  from  all  other  countries 
as  well,  and  this  policy  will  doubtless  be  continued  until 
such  time  as  conditions  have  been  established  here  that  will 
provide  the  opportunity  of  earning  a  living  to  all  the 
workers  now  here.  This,  the  American  worker  feels,  is  a 
sane,  sensible  and  thoroughly  reasonable  policy  against 
which  no  worker  can  justly  complain. 

As  the  process  of  organization  of  the  workers  of  Japan 

C  29  ) 


advances,  and  improved  conditions  surrounding  them  are 
brought  about,  wages  increased  and  the  length  of  the  work 
day  shortened,  there  will  be  less  desire  on  the  part  of  these 
workers  to  emigrate  to  the  United  States,  and  with  these 
conditions  prevailing  in  Japan  there  would  be  less  danger 
to  the  American  workers'  standards  if  they  did  come  here, 
because  they  would  then  be  imbued  with  trade  union  ideals 
and  willing  to  stand  up  for  them. 

With  the  intelligent  men  of  the  two  countries  desirous 
of  maintaining  friendly  and  mutually  helpful  relations  there 
can  be  but  scant  satisfaction'  in  the  situation  for  the  jingoes 
and  alarmists  on  either  side  of  the  Pacific,  and  with  such 
men  as  Baron  Shibusawa  taking  'an  active  and  unselfish 
interest  in  the  problems  of  labor,  both  here  in  the  United 
States  and  in  his  own  country,  it  is  more  than  likely  some 
satisfactory  adjustment  of  our  difficulties  will  eventually 
be  reached.  i 


WHAT  THE  WEST  MIGHT  LEARN  FROM  JAPAN. 

By  George  Kennan. 

In  a  recent  editorial  on  the  improved  relations  between 
Russia  and  Japan,  the  Petrograd  Reitch  said:  "It  was 
easy  for  us  to  make  friends  with  the  Japanese,  after  the 
war  of  1904-5,  because  they  always  fought  us  like  gentle- 
men." 

To  the  dispassionate  observer  of  wars,  nothing  is  more 
striking  than  the  difference  between  the  spiritual  attitude 
of  the  Japanese  toward  the  Russians,  in  the  war  of  1904-5, 
and  that  of  the  combatants  toward  one  another  in  the 
present  conflict.  If  ever  a  nation  was  engaged  in  a  life- 
and-death  struggle  for  existence,  Japan  certainly  was  so 
engaged  ten  years  ago;  and  yet,  the  magnitude  of  the  issue 
involved  never  inspired  a  "Hymn  of  Hatred"  in  Japan,  nor 
excited  rancorous  animosity  in  the  hearts  of  the  Japanese 
people.  They  fought  the  Russians  as  fiercely  as  either  side 
has  fought  the  other  in  Belgium  or  France;  but  they  never 
hated  their  enemies,  either  nationally  or  personally,  and 
never  failed  to  do  full  justice  to  Russian  motives  and  con- 
duct. In  the  course  of  two  years'  intercourse  with  Japanese 
soldiers  and  the  Japanese  people,  between  1904  and  1906, 
I  never  heard  a  mean,  ungenerous,  or  bitter  remark  made 
about  the  Russians,  their  character  or  their  conduct  of  the 
war, 

C  30  ) 


Soon  after  I  arrived  at  Port  Arthur,  in  the  fall  of  1904, 
I  noticed  that  the  Japanese  Red  Cross  hospitals,  in  the  zone 
of  fire,  were  not  flying  the  Red  Cross  flag;  and  when  I 
inquired  the  reason  for  this,  a  Japanese  officer  told  me, 
quietly  and  without  emotion,  that  the  Red  Cross  flags  seemed 
to  attract  the  fire  of  the  Russian  artillery,  and  they  had 
therefore  hauled  them  down.  He  made  no  comment,  and 
one  might  have  supposed  that  he  regarded  the  firing  on  a 
Red  Cross  hospital  as  a  natural  and  normal  incident  of 
war. 

About  the  same  time,  I  myself  saw  what  seemed  to  be 
the  deliberate  and  purposeful  shelling  of  a  long  train  of 
stretcherbearers,  who  were  carrying  Japanese  wounded 
back  from  the  front ;  but  no  Japanese,  in  conversation  with 
me,  ever  referred  to  this  crud  and  dishonorable  act  as  an 
illustration  of  Russian  barbarity.  They  simply  ignored  it. 

A  few  weeks  later,  I  was  called  upon  to  act  as  inter- 
preter in  an  interview  between  two  Japanese  staff  officers 
and  three  or  four  Russian  prisoners  who  had  just  been 
brought  back  from  the  firing  line.  I  feared  that  the  officers 
might  put  me  in  an  unpleasant  and  awkward  position  by 
requesting  me  to  ask  the  Russians  questions  which,  as  loyal 
soldiers,  they  could  not  properly  answer;  but  I  need  have 
had  no  such  fear.  Not  a  single  attempt  was  made  to  learn 
the  state  of  affairs  in  Port  Arthur,  and  not  a  question  was 
asked  that  a  loyal  Russian  soldier  might  not  frankly  answer 
without  betraying  his  comrades,  or  the  interests  of  his  coun- 
try. The  Japanese  would  doubtless  have  been  glad  to 
know  what  the  real  state  of  affairs  in  the  besieged  fortress 
was;  but  to  obtain  the  desired  information  by  forcing  or 
tempting  a  Russian  prisoner  to  disregard  his  military  oath 
and  betray  his  comrades  would  have  been  a  violation  of  the 
.Japanese  code  of  honor. 

Evidence  of  Japanese  chivalry  and  courtesy  toward 
their  enemies  in  Manchuria  are'  so  numerous  that  I  hardly 
know  how  to  make  a  selection  from  them;  but  every  one 
who  paid  any  attention  to  that  war  must  remember  the 
Japanese  memorial  service  in  honor  of  the  Russian  sailors 
who  sank  in  the  cruiser  "Variag"  at  Chemulpo;  the  monu- 
ment erected  to  the  Russian  soldiers  who  perished  at  Port 
Arthur;  the  memorial  crosses  put  up  over  the  graves  of 
Russians  who  died  between  Liao-yang  and  Mukden;  and/ 
the  letter  from  the  officers  of  the  Japanese  army  to  the  of- 
ficers of  the  Russian  army,  congratulating  them  on  having 

C  31   ) 


had  in  their  service  so  heroic  a  man  and  so  devoted  a  soldier 
as  the  spy  Vassilli  Liuboff.  The  Japanese  shot  the  spy, 
but  they  paid  honor  to  his  brave  Russian  spirit,  and  ex- 
pressed the  courteous  hope  that  in  the  Russian  ranks  might 
be  found  many  soldiers  equally  patriotic  and  loyal.  Does 
that  sound  like  anything  that  we  have  heard  from  either 
side  in  the  present  conflict? 

What,  then,  may  the  nations  of  the  West,  in  the  turmoil 
of  war,  learn  from  the  greatest  nation  of  the  Orient?  First 
of  all,  it  seems  to  me,  they  may  learn  to  hold  their  tongues 
and  use  their  brains;  to  kill  their  enemies  without  insulting 
them;  and  to  hit  hard  but  fight  fairly. 


<f.  AMERICA  AND  JAPAN— WAR  OR  PEACE. 

By  Jefferson  Jones. 

(Mr.  Jefferson  Jones  is  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
Minneapolis  Journal,  his  father  being  the  proprietor  of  that 
paper.  Mr.  Jones  spent  some  two  years  in  Japan  and  was 
connected  with  the  Japan  Advertiser,  an  American  news- 
paper in  Tokio.  During  the  siege  of  Tsing-tau,  the  German 
stronghold  in  China,  he  was  with  the  Japanese  army  and 
enjoyed  the  privilege  of  observing  the  Japanese  military 
operations  at  close  range.  The  following  article  is  taken 
from  his  book  entitled  "The  Fall  of  Tsing-tau,"  just  pub- 
lished by  Houghton  Mifflin  Company.)  • 


We  have  seen  placed  on  the  statute  books  of  Canada  and 
Australia  legislation  which,  as  a  barrier  to  the  Japanese,  is 
far  more  stringent  than  any  acts  passed  by  our  Pacific  Coast 
States.  But  has  the  reader  heard  any  dangerous  controversy 
arising  between  Japanese  and  British  diplomats  over  the 
subject,  or  has  there  been  any  talk  of  Great  Britain  and 
Japan  going  to  war  because  of  such  legislation? 

No ;  because  Great  Britain  has  recognized  Japan  by  its 
Anglo-Japanese  Alliance.  It  is  recognition  from  the  Powers 
that  Japan  primarily  wants — not  emigration.  The  Japanese 
Government  knows  that  the  "all  in  all"  question  of  its 
future  is  not  bound  up  in  the  emigration  of  its  citizens  to 
the  United  States,  there  to  take  up  their  life  residence,  to 
rear  their  families  and  to  become  American  citizens.  But  it 
does  know  that  in  the  heterogeneous  condition  of  the  Far 
East  it  must  solidify  its  colonies  if  it  does  not  intend  to  see 

C  32  > 


them  rise  in  revolt  and  break  away  from  the  present  Gov- 
ernment. Emigration  to  America,  Canada,  or  Australia 
will  not  bring  about  this  desired  condition  for  the  Japanese 
Government,  but  emigration  into  her  own  colonies  will. 

Until  twenty  years  ago  the  Japanese  Empire  consisted 
of  one  people  and  peace  reigned  supreme.  Since  then  the 
Empire  has  acquired  Formosa,  Manchuria,  the  Liao-tung 
Peninsula,  and  Korea,  and  with  the  additional  territory  has 
come  much  turmoil  in  the  colonial  possessions  from,  the  con- 
tact of  the  Japanese  with  the  natives.  It  has  been  a  difficult 
question  for  the  Japanese  Government  to  solve,  how  best  to 
link  its  added  territory  to  the  main  empire;  and  the  only 
practical  solution  of  the  matter  has. been  emigration,  sending 
its  citizens  from  the  main  islands  into  Formosa  and  Korea, 
tin-re  to  establish  themselves  in  business  and  intermarry  with 
the  natives.  In  this  way  the  foreigners  would  amalgamate 
in  time  with  the  Japanese. 

But  when  it  came  to  the  emigration  of  its  citizens,  there 
was  always  tin-  Tinted  States  offering  more  opportunity 
than  the  .Japanese  Government  could  offer,  and  the  natural 
trend  was  toward  America. 

Since  the  first  outbreak  of  the  California  question,  the 
.Japanese  (Jovernnient  has  reali/ed  its  mistake,  and  is  now 
bending  all  efforts  to  make  its  possessions  in  China  and  about 
the  Yellow  Sen  attractive  enough  to  draw  citizens  of  Japan 
into  Japanese  possessions  rather  than  to  America. 

At  present  the  Government  has  been  meeting  with  much 
opposition  in  its  immigration  plans,  for  the  Koreans  as  well 
as  the  natives  of  Formosa  have  a  bitter  hatred  for  the 
Japanese  and  trouble  is  met  with  once  the  peoples  inter- 
mingle. With  China  still  much  of  an  enigma,  and  with  its 
dissolution  as  a  nation  seemingly  close  at  hand,  much  de- 
pends upon  Japan's  ability  to  solve  her  emigration  ques- 
tion if  she  wishes  successfully  to  accomplish  her  continental 
expansion  in  A*ia  and  in  the  Pacific. 

But  during  the  present  century,  while  Japanese  emigra- 
tion has  been  going  ou,  and  the  Japanese  war  scare  has  been 
making  the  rounds  of  America,  -Japan  has  advanced,  from 
being  regarded  by  Europe  as  on  the  same  level  with  China, 
to  being  a  first-class  Power,  allied  with  Great  Britain,  and 
consulted  by  all  nations  in  matters  affecting  the  Far  East. 

To  the  Japanese  the  California  land  law  appears  to  be 
a  refusal  to  recognize  them  as  a  first-class  nation,  because 
our  Government  has  provided  nothing  to  offset  that  opinion. 

C  33  ) 


Great  Britain,  however,  while  she,  too,  has  been  enacting 
California  legislation  in  her  colonies  against  the  Japanese, 
has  shown  that  she  harbors  nothing  against  them  as  a  nation 
by  signing  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance. 

Every  foreigner  who  resides  in  Japan  soon  comes  to 
learn  that  the  Japanese  are  supersensitive.  Failure  to  show 
little  courtesies,  which  the  foreigner  would  pass  by  with 
hardly  a  notice ;  strikes  deep  into  the  heart  of  the  Oriental. 

And  so  it  is  with  America's  Japanese  problem.  We  have 
struck  deep  into  the  heart  of  the  Japanese  by  seemingly 
refusing  to  recognize  them.  They  will  remember  the  action, 
which  to  them  appears  as  an  insult,  until  America — not 
Japan — does  something  to  wash  out  the  ill-feeling  naturally 
resulting. 

"I  come  now  to  the  last  important  point  demanding 
attention,"  writes  Count  Okuma,  aged  Japanese  statesman, 
in  his  recent  book,  "Fifty  Years  of  New  Japan."  "I  mean 
our  aspiration  to  be  recognized  by  the  world  as  a  great 
nation.  There  is  nothing  strange  in  the  demand  that  our 
people  should  be  accorded  the  treatment  due  to  their 
greatness  as  a  Power,  not  merely  in  the  Orient,  but  in  the 
whole  world." 

With  reference  to  the  California  question  he  says :  "I  am 
well  aware  that  behind  this  anti-Japanese  sentiment  there 
exist  various  circumstances  which  deserve  consideration. 
However,  in  so  far  as  our  people  are  disliked  because  they 
are  Asiatics,  there  is  nothing  reasonable  or  logical  in  their 
hostile  feeling.  To  reason  against  and  to  remove  these  pre- 
judices and  misconceptions  is  a  mutual  duty  devolving  as 
much  on  our  people  as  on  the  Western  nations  concerned." 

It  is  probably  true  that  there  are  many  Americans  who 
dislike  the  Japanese  because  they  are  Asiatics,  but  these 
are  in  the  minority;  their  bark  carries  with  it  no  bite. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  broad-minded  men  of  both  Japan 
and  the  United  States  realize  that,  underlying  the  California 
legislation  against  the  Japanese,  there  are  conditions  which 
are  proper  for  California  to  take  note  of.  The  work  has 
been  pporly  done. 

The  average  American  and  Japanese  public  have  a  mis- 
conception of  the  California  legislation.  It  has  a  larger 
significance  than  just  the  question  of  admitting  the  Japanese. 
If  the  United  States  should  admit  the  Japanese  to  immi- 
gration to  this  country,  what  point  could  you  bring  out  in 
the  Japanese  as  possible  citizens  that  you  could  not  find  in 

C  34  ) 


the  Chinese  or  in  the  Hindu? 

In  fact,  the  California  action  is  not  aimed  directly  at 
the  Japanese,  though  the  latter  may  believe  the  opposite 
and  feel  the  sting  of  it  more  sharply  because  their  name 
is  carried  in  the  acts  of  legislation.  No,  the  action  is  an 
indirect  barrier  to  the  immigration  of  any  Asiatics  to 
America.  True,  it  is,  there  is  already  a  federal  regulation 
against  the  immigration  of  the  Chinese  into  this  country, 
but  it  is  mainly  because  of  economic  reasons,  as  it  is  also 
the  bar  against  the  Japanese.  Nevertheless,  a  great  friend- 
ship exists  between  the  United  States  and  China,  the  same 
s  there  should  exist  between  Japan  and  this  country,  and 
ill  exist  as  soon  as  America  recognizes  Japan  satisfactorily 
s  a  Power. 

Since  Japan's  stimulation  of  emigration  to  her  own 
Ionics  of  late,  the  Japanese  war  scare  in  America  has  been 
radually  subsiding,  but  jingo  press  artists  from  time  to 
inn-  continue  to  heap  coal  on  the  dying  fire  by  spreading 
broadcast  the  untruthful  report  that  the  Japanese  are 
landing  troops  on  the  shores  of  Turtle  Bay  in  Southern 
California  or  in  some  other  section  of  the  Americas. 

In  speaking  of  the  improved  situation  existing  between 
the  United  States  and  Japan,  Count  Okurna  said  in  April, 
this  year: 

"Practically  all  the  friction  that  has  arisen  in  America 
has  grown  out  of  one  phase  or  another  of  the  immigration 
question.  That  situation  is  improving  somewhat  and  is  one 
that  I  hope  time  will  solve  satisfactorily  to  both  countries. 
It  is  a  question  which  from  its  nature  requires  time  for 
solution. 

"The  United  States  has  had  other  such  questions  with 
other  nations,  which  have  always  been  solved  by  time,  and 
so  I  hope  for  a  similar  solution  of  this  question.  There 
are  now  about  eighty  thousand  Japanese  in  the  United 
States — that  is,  in  the  mainland  territory — and  as  many, 
or  perhaps  a  few  more,  in  Hawaii. 

"This  is  a  smaller  number  than  were  in  the  United 
States  at  the  time  the  so-called  gentlemen's  agreement  was 
concluded.  Since  that  time  more  Japanese  have  come  home 
from  the  United  States  than  have  gone  there  and  the  num- 
ber in  your  country  has  been  steadily  reduced. 

"This  reduction  has  been  slow,  it  is  true,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  a  good  many  Japanese  in  America  get  married 
and  the  birth  of  children  tends  to  keep  up  the  total  number 

(   35   ) 


of  Japanese  there.  But  the  influx  of  Japanese  has  been 
practically  stopped  and  there  is  a  gradual  but  steady  reduc- 
tion going  on." 

There  is  no  real  ground  for  apprehension,  no  real  cause 
for  alarm  in  the  relations  existing  between  the  United  States 
and  Japan.  I  do  not  believe  that  Japan  has,  or  ever  had, 
any  desire  of  warring  with  the  United  States.  For  economic 
reasons  alone  this  appears  to  be  true.  Japan  has  not  as  yet 
recovered  from  her  Russian  war.  Not  one  cent  of  the  debt 
incurred  in  waging  that  conflict  has  yet  been  paid,  and 
since  that  time  the  war  operations  at  Kiao-chau  have  in- 
debted the  Government  still  further.  Further  acquisition 
of  territory  necessitating  large  expenditures  to  the  Gov- 
ernment in  its  upkeep,  both  in  Manchuria  and  Korea  as 
well  as  in  Kiao-chau,  have  stripped  the  Japanese  treasury. 

During  that  period  the  United  States  has  been  Japan's 
best  customer.  We  have  purchased  raw  silk  and  tea  to  the 
extent  annually  of  more  than  sixty  million  dollars,  and  in 
so  doing  have  kept  thousands  of  people  in  Japan  in  employ- 
ment in  this  trade.  If  war  was  to  be  declared  between  the 
two  countries,  this  trade  would  come  to  a  standstill,  the 
Government  would  lose  this  income.  Great  Britain  could 
not  be  used  as  the  market  for  the  once  American  tea-trade, 
for  England  has  cultivated  a  taste  for  the  better  class  of 
teas,  either  Indian  or  Chinese.  Nor  would  England  take  up 
the  importation  of  Japanese  raw  silk  dropped  by  America, 
because  they  have  found  the  Chinese  silk  more  stable. 

But  the  real  question  existing  between  Japan  and  the 
United  States,  is  the  attitude  of  the  two  Governments  to- 
wards China.  On  this  point  rests  the  only  true  apprehen- 
sion for  fear  of  a  war.  Count  Okuma,  and  other  Japanese 
statesmen,  know  that  in  the  California  immigration  question 
there  are  good  points  to  be  stated  for  both  sides,  and  they 
realize  that  time  alone  can  settle  the  matter  in  the  peace- 
ful way  they  are  desirous  that  it  shall  be  settled.  In  the 
question  of  China,  however,  the  situation  is  more  serious. 


C  36   ) 


THE  JAPANESE  QUESTION  IN  AMERICA. 

Especially  written  for  the  Japanese- American  News. 
By  Carlos  K.  McClatchy, 
of  The  Sacramento  Bee. 

Unless  improper  issues  and  controversies  are  injected 
into  the  relations  between  the  two  countries,  the  United 
States  and  Japan  should  be  partners  and  friends  in  a  com- 
mon development,  the  United  States  as  a  leader  on  this 
continent  and  Japan  as  the  foremost  power  of  the  Orient. 

On  that  ground,  the  relations  between  the  two  nations 
undoubtedly  will  be  friendly  and  close.  Americans  admire 
•In pan  for  her  initiative  and  ability,  unreservedly  grant 
her  a  leadership  in  the  affairs  of  the  Orient,  and  cheer- 
fully invite  her  co-operation  in  a  joint  commercial,  intel- 
lectual and  humanitarian  progress  of  the  Western  World 
as  distinguished  from  the  European  continent. 

In  that  sphere,  Americans  have  nothing  but  friendli- 
ness for  the  Japanese. 

California  was  extremely  partisan  in  favor  of  Japan 
during  the  Japanese-Russian  war.  At  that  time,  all  sym- 
pathy was  with  the  nation  of  the  Orient.  There  is  as 
much  latent  friendship  and  common  aims  in  the  breasts 
of  Americans  today,  only  awaiting  the  removal  of  certain 
irritating  differences  to  spring  into  a  full  blossom  of  com- 
mon understanding  and  joint  benefits. 

But  upon  that  difference,  to  grant  to  Japanese  unre- 
stricted immigration  and  citizenship,  there  can  be  no  com- 
promise, if  I  judge  the  temper  and  convictions  of  Ameri- 
cans rightly. 

The  United  States  never  should  give  Japanese  free 
immigration  and  citizenship,  nor  should  Japan  ask  it.  The 
extension  of  those  privileges  perhaps,  for  the  moment, 
might  establish  a  closer  international  friendship,  but  would 
be  a  certain  breeder  of  trouble  for  the  future. 

In  the  past  two  or  three  years,  California  opinion  of 
the  Japanese  has  changed  greatly.  Where  the  first  influx 
of  Japanese  in  large  numbers,  with  the  consequent  Ori- 
entalization  of  large  areas  of  fruitful  farms,  engendered 
hostility  toward  all  Japanese,  closer  acquaintance  has  led 
to  the  distinction  between  the  Japanese  as  an  individual 
and  the  Japanese  in  hordes. 

C   37   ) 


The  last  two  years,  and  especially  the  Exposition,  has 
brought  a  wider  appreciation  of  the  Japanese  individual 
as  a  scholarly,  aggressive  man  of  action  and  ambition. 
For  that  type,  the  student,  the  professional  man,  the 
scientist,  the  traveler,  America  extends  a  hearty  welcome. 

But  against  the  admission  of  large  numbers  of  Jap- 
anese, to  become  residents  and  citizens  of  this  country, 
the  American  people  should  firmly  stand.  No  comparison 
of  the  respective  merits  of  the  two  races  is  intended.  The 
plain  fact  that  there  are  too  many  differences  of  various 
kinds  means  that  throwing  open  the  doors  would  insure 
a  continual  conflict  and  contest  between  the  two  races, 
which  Californians  especially  are  determined  shall  not  arise. 

Nor  need  there  be  any  necessity  for  it.  There  is  the 
whole  Orient  for  Japanese  extension  and  supremacy.  The 
United  States  should  have  this  continent  unhindered. 

For  the  Japanese  individual  there  is  the  heartiest  wel- 
come to  these  shores.  But  there  will  be  no  reception  for 
Japanese  in  large  numbers  for  the  colonization  of  Cali- 
fornia. 

Americans  ask  no  more  in  Japan,  nor  does  the  Empire 
grant  more  than  the  United  States  already  gives.  In  fact, 
Japanese  have  many  more  privileges  in  this  country  than 
Americans  in  Japan. 

Friendship  and  common  action  in  working  out  joint 
progress  is  desired. 

But  neither  country  should  intrude  itself  upon  the  do- 
mestic concerns  of  another  by  insisting  that  its  citizens 
be  welcomed  in  large  numbers  to  precipitate  the  conflict 
of  two  essentially  different  races  that  is  bound  to  breed 
nothing  but  trouble. 


C   38 


n  TREATY  OBLIGATIONS. 

By   Hon.    Elihu   Root, 

Ex-Secretary  of  State,  ex-United  States  Senator. 
These  extracts  are  from  an  address  on  the  treaty  obliga- 
of  the  United  States  with  Japan  (cited  with  the  per- 
mission of  the  author)  given  at  Washington  before  the 
American  Society  of  International  Law,  an  the  19th  of 
April,  1907. 

It  is  impossible  that  the  human  mind  should  be  addressed 
to  questions  better  worth  its  noblest  efforts,  offering  a 
greater  opportunity  for  usefulness  in  the  exercise  of  its 
powers,  or  more  full  historical  and  contemporary  interest, 
tli a n  in  the  field  of  international  rights  and  duties.  The 
change  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  government,  which 
has  marked  the  century  since  the  establishment  of  the 
American  Union,  has  shifted  the  determination  of  great 
questions  of  domestic  national  policy  from  a  few  rulers  in 
each  country  to  the  great  body  of  the  people,  who  render 
the  ultimate  decision  under  all  modern  constitutional  gov- 
ernments. Coincident  with  that  change  the  practice  of 
diplomacy  lias  ceased  to  be  a  mystery  confined  to  a  few 
1  CM  rued  men  who  strive  to  give  effect  to  the  wishes  of  per- 
sonal rulers,  and  has  become  a  representative  function 
answering  to  the  opinions  and  the  will  of  the  multitude  of 
citizens,  who  themselves  create  the  relations  between  the 
states  and  determine  the  issues  of  friendship  and  estrange- 
ment, of  peace  and  war.  Under  the  new  system  there  are 
many  dangers  from  which  the  old  system  was  free.  The 
rules  and  Customs  which  the  experience  of  centuries  had 
shown  to  be  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  good 
understanding  between  nations  have  little  weight  with  the 
new  popular  masters  of  diplomacy;  the  precedents  and 
agreements  of  opinion  which  have  carried  so  great  a  part  of 
the  rights  and  duties  of  nations  toward  each  other  beyond 
the  pale  of  discussion  are  but  little  understood.  The  edu- 
cation of  public  opinion,  which  should  lead  the  sovereign 
people  in  each  country  to  understand  the  definite  limita- 
tions upon  national  rights  and  the  full  scope  and  respon- 
sibility of  national  duties,  has  only  just  begun.  Informa- 
tion, understanding,  leadership  of  opinion  in  these  matters, 

C  39  ) 


so  vital  to  wise  judgment  and  right  action  in  international 
affairs,  are  much  needed. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  be  able  to  say  that  never  for  a 
moment  was  there,  as  between  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  and  the  Government  of  Japan,  the  slightest 
departure  from  perfect  good  temper,  mutual  confidence,  and' 
kindly  consideration;  and  that  no  sooner  had  the  views  and 
purposes  of  the  Governments  of  the  United  States,  the  State 
of  California,  and  the  city  of  San  Francisco  been  explained 
by  each  to  the  other  than  entire  harmony  and  good  under- 
standing resulted,  with  a  common  desire  to  exercise  the 
powers  vested  in  each,  for  the  common  good  of  the  whole 
country,  of  the  state,  and  of  the  city. 

In  the  distribution  of  powers  under  our  composite  sys- 
tem of  government  the  people  of  San  Francisco  had  three 
sets  of  interests  committed  to  three  different  sets  of  officers 
—their  special  interest  as  citizens  of  the  principal  city  and 
commercial  port  of  the  Pacific  Coast  represented  by  the  city 
government  of  San  Francisco;  their  interest  in  common  with 
all  the  people  of  the  State  of  California  represented  by  the 
Governor  and  Legislature  at  Sacramento;  and  their  interests 
in  common  with  all  the  people  of  the  United  States  rep- 
resented by  the  National  Government  at  Washington.  Each 
one  of  these  three  different  governmental  agencies  had  author- 
ity to  do  certain  things  relating  to  the  treatment  of  Japanese 
residents  in  San  Francisco.  These  three  interests  could  not 
be  really  in  conflict;  for  the  best  interest  of  the  whole  coun- 
try is  always  the  true  interests  of  every  state  and  city,  and 
the  protection  of  the  interests  of  every  locality  in  the  coun- 
try is  always  the  true  interest  of  the  nation.  There  was, 
however,  a  supposed  or  apparent  clashing  of  interests,  and, 
to  do  away  with  this,  conference,  communication,  comparison 
of  views,  explanation  of  policy  and  purpose  were  necessary. 
Many  thoughtless  and  some  mischievous  persons  have  spoken 
and  written  regarding  these  conferences  and  communica- 
tions as  if  they  were  the  parleying  and  compromise  of 
enemies.  On  the  contrary,  they  were  an  example  of  the 
way  in  which  the  public  business  ought  always  to  be  con- 
ducted; so  that  the  different  public  officers  respectively 
charged  with  the  performance  of  duties  affecting  the  same 
subject-matter  may  work  together  in  furtherance  of  the 
same  policy  and  with  a  common  purpose  for  the  good  of  the 
whole  country  and  every  part  of  the  country.  Such  a  con- 
cert of  action  with  such  a  purpose  was  established  by  the 

C    40   ) 


conferences  and  communications  between  the  national  author- 
ities and  the  authorities  of  California  and  San  Francisco 
which  followed  the  passage  of  the  Board  of  Education  resolu- 
tion. 

There  was  one  great  and  serious  question  underlying  the 
whole  subject  which  made  all  questions  of  construction  and 
of  scope  and  of  effect  of  the  treaty  itself — all  questions  as 
to  whether  the  claims  of  Japan  were  well  founded  or  not; 
all  questions  as  to  whether  the  resolution  of  the  school  board 
was  valid  or  not — seem  temporary  and  comparatively  un- 
important. It  was  not  a  question  of  war  with  Japan.  All 
the  foolish  talk  about  war  was  purely  sensational  and 
imaginative.  There  was  never  even  friction  between  the 
two  Governments.  The  question  was,  What  state  of  feeling 
would  be  created  between  the  great  body  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States  and  the  great  body  of  the  people  of 
Japan  as  a  result  of  the  treatment  given  to  the  Japanese 
in  this  country? 

What  was  to  be  the  effect  upon  that  proud  sensitive, 
highly  civilized  people  across  the  Pacific  of  the  discourtesy, 
insult,  imputations  of  inferiority  and  abuse  aimed  at  them 
in  the  columns  of  American  newspapers  and  from  the  plat- 
forms of  American  public  meetings?  What  would  be  the 
effect  upon  our  own  people  of  the  responses  that  natural 
resent  incut  for  such  treatment  would  elicit  from  the 
Japanese? 

The  first  article  of  the  first  treaty  Japan  ever  made 
with  a  Western  power  provided: 

"There  shall  be  a  perfect,  permanent,  and  universal 
peace  and  a  sincere  and  cordial  amity  between  the  United 
States  of  America  on  the  one  part,  and  the  empire  of  Japan 
on  the  other  part,  and  between  their  people  respectively, 
without  exception  of  persons  or  places." 

Under  that  treaty  which  bore  the  signature  of  Matthew 
Calbraith  Perry,  we  introduced  Japan  to  the  world  of 
Western  civilization.  We  had  always  been  proud  of  her 
wonderful  development — proud  of  the  genius  of  the  race 
that  in  a  single  generation  adapted  an  ancient  feudal  system 
of  the  Far  East  to  the  most  advanced  standards  of  modern 
Europe  and  America.  The  friendship  between  the  two 
nations  had  been  peculiar  and  close.  Was  the  declaration 
of  that  treaty  to  be  set  aside?  At  Kurihama,  in  Japan, 
stands  a  monument  to  Commodore  Perry,  raised « by  the 
Japanese  in  grateful  appreciation,  upon  the  site  where  he 

C  41  ) 


landed  and  opened  negotiations  for  the  treaty.  Was  that 
monument  henceforth  to  represent  dislike  and  resentment? 
Were  the  two  peoples  to  face  each  other  across  the  Pacific 
in  future  years  with  angry  and  resentful  feelings?  All  this 
was  inevitable  if  the  process  which  seemed  to  have  begun 
was  to  continue,  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
looked  with  the  greatest  solicitude  upon  the  possibility  that 
the  process  might  continue. 

It  is  hard  for  democracy  to  learn  the  responsibilities  of 
its  power ;  but  the  people  now,  not  governments,  make  friend- 
ship or  dislike,  sympathy  or  discord,  peace  or  war,  between 
nations.  In  this  modern  day,  through  the  columns  of  the 
myriad  press  and  messages  flashing  over  countless  wires, 
multitude  calls  to  multitude  across  boundaries  and  oceans  in 
courtesy  or  insult,  in  amity  or  in  defiance.  Foreign  officers 
and  ambassadors  and  ministers  no  longer  keep  or  break  the 
peace,  but  the  conduct  of  each  people  toward  every  other. 
The  people  who  permit  themselves  to  treat  the  people  are 
surely  sowing  the  wind  to  reap  the  whirlwind,  for  a  world 
of  sullen  and  revengful  hatred  can  never  be  a  world  of 
peace.  Against  such  a  feeling  treaties  are  waste  paper  and 
diplomacy  the  empty  routine  of  ideal  form.  The  great 
question  which  overshadowed  all  discussion  of  the  treaty 
of  1894  was  the  question:  Are  the  people  of  the  United 
States  about  to  break  friendship  with  the  people  of  Japan? 
That  question,  I  believe,  has  been  happily  answered  in  the 
negative. 


Jl.   LEST  WE  FORGET. 

By  John  Foord, 

It  may  sound  rhetorical,  but  it  may  also  turn  out  to  be 
true  that  "when  history  shall  have  placed  all  the  great 
political  events  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  their  proper 
perspective,  none  will  bulk  larger  in  the  eyes  of  posterity 
than  the  appearance  of  Commodore  Perry's  fleet  in  Japanese 
waters".  The  obvious  reason  is  that  this  event  began  a 
complete  revolution  in  the  relation  between  the  West  and  the 
East  by  awakening  to  a  consciousness  of  its  power  an  Eastern 
nation  which,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  has  shown  itself 
able  to  assimilate  in  great  measure  the  civilization  of  the 
West  without  surrendering  its  own,  and  thus  to  assert  a 
claim  to  take  rank  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  the  Great 

C   42   ) 


Powers  of  the  West  in  the  arts  both  of  peace  and  war. 
When,  therefore,  the  Island  Empire,  whose  seclusion  for 
three  centuries  was  broken  in  upon  by  the  bearer  of  a 
letter  from  the  President  of  the  United  States,  became  the 
d< 'Tender  of  the  principles  and  policy  which  this  Govern- 
ment had  deliberately  adopted  and  steadfastly  maintained 
in  its  efforts  to  conserve  the  commercial  interests  of  its 
eiti/ens  in  Eastern  Asia,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  sympathy 
of  the  American  people  should  be  on  its  side.  The  fact  was 
freely  recognized  that  Japan  had  gone  further  than  this 
country  was  prepared  to  go  in  submitting  her  case  against 
Russia  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  This  she  would 
hardly  have  done  but  for  the  lessons  she  had  learned  after 
the  war  with  China  in  1894 — a  war  whose  fruits  she  was  not 
allowed  to  reap,  although  they  were  gathered  in  by  Russia 
almost  without  an  effort.  It  had  become  an  accepted  axiom 
of  Japanese  statesmanship  that  Korea  was  a  dagger  aimed 
at  the  heart  of  Japan,  and  it  was  sufficiently  evident  that 
no  nation  could  regard  with  equanimity  the  prospect  of  an 
easily  fortified  peninsula,  lying  almost  within  stone  throw 
of  her  shores,  being  absorbed  by  an  aggressive  military 
power. 

Hence,  in  1904,  the  world  was  called  upon  to  contemplate 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  situations  in  all  history.  The 
battle  of  hi  mum  freedom  which  was  won  against  the  hosts 
of  Persia  at  Marathon  and  Salamis  was  then  being  waged 
by  a  people  of  unmixed  Asiatic  blood  against  an  Empire 
calling  itself  European,  and  claiming  to  be  the  champion 
of  white  men  ajrainst  the  yellow  races.  This  is  surely  a  fact 
to  he  remembered  by  people  who  are  frightened  by  the 
l>o'_rey  of  a  regenerated  Asia,  equipped  with  the  weapons  of 
modern  warfare  but  filled  with  the  lust  of  conquest.  We 
owe  it  to  Japan  that  we  have  not  today  another  Europe 
facing  us,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific,  garrisoned  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Chinese  troops  bearing  modern 
a  r:ns  and  trained  by  European  soldiers.  With  the  defeat  of 
Japan  the  dominion  of  Russia  would  have  unquestionably 
bem  extended  to  the  Yellow  River,  that  of  Germany  would 
have  he.  11  •  nlaruvd  to  meet  the  Yangtsze,  that  of  France 
prolonged  from  Indo-China  into  Szechuan,  leaving  that  of 
(ireat  Britain  to  occupy  the  unclaimed  space  between.  There 
could  have  been  no  stable  balance  of  power  between  such 
forces,  dividing  among  them,  in  the  shape  of  spheres  of 
influence  and  of  sovereignty,  a  dismembered  China.  The 

("43  ) 


inevitable  conflict  for  supremacy,  sooner  or  later,  would 
have  ensued — a  conflict  envenomed,  sanguinary,  and  destruc- 
tive beyond  all  precedent — with  only  this  certain  issue,  that 
the  victor  would  dominate  Asia,  and  that  with  this  domin- 
ance would  come  the  reduction  of  the  United  States  to  the 
rank  of  a  secondary  Power  on  the  Pacific.  From  a  standing 
menace,  equally  to  the  peace  of  the  world  and  the  future 
of  the  United  States,  Japan  saved  us  in  1904.  Have  we 
so  soon  forgotten  the  magnificent  prowess  and  the  scrupul- 
ous honor  of  the  country  which  performed  that  feat,  as  to 
listen  with  patience  to  brainless  twaddle  about  the  "yellow 
peril",  and  reckless  aspersions  on  the  good  faith  of  Nippon? 
— From  "America,  to  Japan/'  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 


13.  THE  PACIFIC  COAST  PERIL. 

By  Francis  Butler  Loomis, 
Former  Assistant  Secretary  of  State. 


The  campaign  against  the  Japanese  in  California  as  it 
is  carried  on  by  professional  agitators  seems  to  be  based 
upon  misinformation  and  misunderstanding,  some  of  which 
is  real  and  some  of  which  is  wilfully  feigned. 

There  can  be  no  clear  comprehension  of  the  questions  at 
issue  between  the  Government  of  Japan  and  that  of  our  own 
country  unless  certain  fundamental  facts  with  respect  to 
Japan  become  a  matter  of  common  knowledge. 

1.  The    Government   of   Japan    earnestly   desires   peace 
with  the  United  States  and  a  continuance  of  the  pleasant 
relations   which   have   marked   the   intercourse   between   the 
two  countries  for  upwards  of  fifty  years. 

2.  The  Japanese  people  have  an  historic  and  sentimental 
bias  in  favor  of  the  United  States. 

3.  Japan  is  not  seeking  to  acquire  the  Philippines,  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  she  wants  them. 

4.  Japan    does    not    want    war.      She    earnestly    desires 
peace  with  all  notions. 

5.  Great  changes  have  taken  place  in  Japan  within  the 
last  decade.    The  pronounced  manifestations  of  radical  think- 
ing and  unrest  which  have  been  visible  in  all  parts  of  the 
civilized  world  have  had  their  sympathetic  responses  in  Japan. 
Opposition  to  the  Government  and  to  the  established  order 
is  stronger  and  more  militant  today  in  Japan  than  it  ever 

C   44J) 


was  before  and  this  condition  has  to  be  taken  seriously  into 
account.  In  short,  the  making  of  war  or  peace  in  the  future, 
in  Japan,  may  not  lie  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  Govern- 
ment . 

In  1908  I  had  several  talks  with  Prince  Katsura  and  with 
Prince  Ito.  The  day  before  leaving  Japan,  where  I  had 
discharged  a  confidential  diplomatic  mission,  Prince  Katsura, 
who  was  then  Prime  Minister,  sent  for  me.  He  discussed 
for  two  hours  the  future  of  Japan  and  the  plans  which  were 
then  forming  for  the  development  of  that  country  in  an 
industrial  way.  It  was  expected  that  what  he  told  me 
would  be  informally  communicated  to  the  Goverment  of 
the  United  States.  Early  in  the  following  year,  a  fortnight 
before  Mr.  Taft  was  inaugurated,  there  was  a  recrudescence 
of  the-  Japanese  question  in  this  country,  and  I  put  in  the 
form  of  an  interview  the  salient  points  of  my  talk  with 
Prince  Katsura.  This  was  published  at  the  instance  of 
the  President  and  of  Mr.  Knox,  who  was  about  to  become 
Si  -en  -t;i  ry  of  State.  The  article  was  given  wide  publicity 
by  the  Associated  Press  and  had  a  tranquilizing  effect,  for 
Prince  Katsura  made  it  very  plain  that  Japan  had  no  further 
military  a m bit  ions,  no  desire  for  conquest,  no  design  upon 
the  Philippines.  He  said  with  sincere  and  convincing 
emphasis  that  the  future  of  Japan  must  be  an  industrial 
one. 

"\Ve  must  make  this  island/'  he  affirmed,  "the  great 
workshop  and  factory  for  the  Orient,  and  try  in  a  large 
measure  to  supply  Oriental  countries  with  manufactured 
»-<MM!S.  In  the  development  of  Korea,  Formosa,  and  possibly 
some  parts  of  Manchuria,  we  shall  have  all  we  want  to 
do  in  the  way  of  colonization  and  expansion.  If  we  can  well 
and  wisely  administer  Korea  and  Formosa  they  will  afford 
an  outlet  for  practically  all  the  Japanese  who  may  wish  to 
leave  their  native  country.  To  bring  about  the  upbuilding 
of  Japan  in  an  industrial  sense  and  to  develop  Korea  and 
Formosa  will  take  all  of  our  resources.  We  shall  have 
neither  time  nor  money  for  war.  A  certain  military  standard 
will  have  to  be  maintained  for  self-defense,  but  you  will  see 
thnt  our  expenditures  in  this  direction  will  be  reasonable 
and  furnish  no  just  cause  for  alarm  or  suspicion." 

The  policy  outlined  by  Prince  Katsura  and  approved 
by  Prince  Ito  has  since  been  substantially  followed. 

This  country  in  its  official  intercourse  with  Japan  has 
never  had  reason  to  doubt  the  good  faith,  the  honesty,  the 

(  45  ) 


straightforwardness  of  that  Government.  This  is  an  im- 
portant point  and  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  all  persons 
who  are  interested  in  the  Japanese  and  their  relations  to 
the  United  States.  There  is  no  Government  on  earth  more 
scrupulous  in  its  dealings  with  this  country  than  that  of 
Japan.  We  have  nothing  to  fear  from  Japan  so  far  as  its 
Government  is  concerned.  If  questions  of  an  embarrassing 
nature  arise  between  the  two  countries,  they  are  of  our  own 
making.  If  there  is  an  unfortunate  situation  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  in  respect  to  the  Japanese,  we  are  responsible  for  it, 
not  the  Japanese  Government.  With  unwavering  constancy 
and  fidelity  they  have  maintained  "the  gentlemen's  agree- 
ment" by  which  they  undertook  to  suppress  the  immigration 
of  Japanese  laborers  to  the  United  States.  The  inflowing 
stream  of  coolies  from  Japan  has  ceased.  There  are  about 
60,000  Japanese  in  California,  and  the  number  remains 
practically  stationary.  The  Japanese  who  are  domiciled 
in  our  Pacific  Coast  states  are  not  today  a  menace  to  those 
commonwealths  in  an  economic,  a  political,  or  a  moral  way. 
Last  year  I  traveled  from  one  end  of  California  to  the  other 
and  visited  every  Japanese  settlement  of  consequence.  There 
I  found  that  the  Japanese  agriculturists  were  peaceful,  law- 
abiding,  industrious  people,  generally  very  poor,  and,  like 
thousands  of  other  new-comers  to  this  country,  living  with 
rigid  economy.  One  may  find  Portuguese,  Greeks,  and 
Armenians  in  California  living  just  as  poorly.  The  Japanese 
laborers  prosper  because  they  work  hard  and  spend  little. 
Many  of  them  do  not  speak  English  and  are  ignorant  of  our 
scustoms,  manners,  and  laws. 

Americans,  especially  thriftless  ones,  do  not  like  Japanese 
for  neighbors,  and  among  those  who  have  come  to  our  country 
there  are,  of  course,  some  who  are  dishonest,  some  who  violate 
contracts,  some  who  do  not  keep  their  word.  These  short- 
comings are  not  peculiar  to  the  Japanese,  however,  for  I  can 
say,  from  personal  experience  in  California,  that  I  have  dis- 
covered similar  weaknesses  on  the  part  of  rather  prosperous 
^immigrants  from  the  south  of  Europe. 

On  the  Pacific  Coast  there  has  been  an  active  propaganda 
of  hate  carried  on  against  the  Japanese.  It  is  easy  to  play  on 
the  strings  of  national  feeling  and  prejudice.  Hundreds  of 
good  citizens  of  California  believe,  because  they  have  heard 
the  statement  made  over  and  over  again,  that  the  Japanese 
are  growing  to  be  a  dangerous  element  in  the  population, 

C  46  ) 


and  that  American  institutions,  liberties,  morals,  and  busi- 
ness are  gravely  menaced  by  their  presence. 

Among  my  personal  acquaintances  I  find  some  who  do 
not  like  the  Japanese,  and  others,  the  majority,  who  are 
very  friendly  toward  them.  The  line  of  division  between 
these  two  opposing  opinions  in  California  is  plain;  on  one 
side,  are  those  who  do  not  know  the  Japanese  thoroughly 
well;  on  the  other  side,  those  who  know  and  understand 
them,  and  who,  moreover,  know  something  about  Japan  and 
the  Japanese  Government.  People  who  think  well  of  the 
Japanese  are,  as  a  rule,  those  who  know  them  well. 

The  Japanese  in  California  ask  only  to  be  let  alone.  The 
more  fortunate  men  of  the  Japanese  race,  the  more  prosper- 
ous and  enlightened,  have  raised  a  considerable  sum  of  money 
and  are  conducting  in  an  intelligent  fashion  an  educational 
campaign  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  instruct  the  ignorant 
Japanese  workingman  in  American  ideas,  manners,  and 
ways  of  living,  so  that  misunderstandings,  the  most  frequent 
cause  of  conflict  between  races,  may  be  removed.  The  edu- 
cated Japanese  in  California,  and  there  are  many  of  them, 
are  making  great  and  constant  efforts  to  improve  the  less 
fortunate  of  their  fellow  countrymen  and  to  convert  them 
into  thoroughly  desirable  residents.  The  Japanese  have  done 
a  great  work  in  this  direction.  Indeed,  they  have  done  more 
than  their  share  in  the  effort  to  live  comfortably  and 
pleasantly  with  the  other  people  of  California.  If  the 
Japanese  were  let  alone,  or  were  given  the  ballot  and 
citizenship,  the  whole  question  would  disappear.  If  the 
Japanese  had  the  right  to  vote  in  California  there  would 
no  longer  be  a  Japanese  question,  as  it  is  now  understood. 
The  politicians  would  not  only  cease  to  harry  them,  but 
would  indeed  strive  to  curry  favor  with  them. 

We  are  dealing  with  the  Japanese  as  they  are  today. 
There  is  no  question  of  unrestricted  or  unlimited  immi- 
gration, consequently  no  present  danger  of  an  Oriental  in- 
vasion. 

After  a  en rcful  personal  survey  of  the  situation  I  think 
one  is  justified  in  contending  that  decency  and  fair  dealing 
and  rejrard  for  justice  and  international  good  faith  require 
that  we  should  give  the  Japanese  in  this  country  the  same 
treatment  we  give  to  other  immigrants  and  the  same  treat- 
ment we  expect  the  Japanese  Government  to  accord  our 
citizens  who  may  wish  to  settle  in  Japan.  Irritating  and 
humiliating  discriminations  toward  the  Japanese  should 

C  47  ) 


cease.  Let  us  deal  honestly  with  the  question.  The  Japanese 
are  not  going  to  overturn  California,  nor  are  they  going 
to  get  an  undue  share  of  business.  To  the  fruits  of  their 
industry,  patience,  self-denial,  and  frugality  they  are  en- 
titled. 

Let  us  ask  our  Western  friends  to  admit  all  this  in 
reference  to  the  Japanese  and  at  the  same  time  try  to  under- 
stand and  value  their  good  qualities  instead  of  forever  com- 
plaining about  their  bad  ones,  which  are  not,  by  the  way, 
exclusively  Japanese  at  all.  In  the  matter  of  immorality, 
commercial  dishonesty,  and  general  bad  conduct  our  own 
countrymen  should  not  be  the  first  to  cast  a  stone.  The 
assailants  of  the  Japanese  in  this  country  talk  as  if  these 
people  from  the  Orient  were  the  sole  possessors  of  all  the 
unworthy  tendencies,  instincts,  and  habits  in  the  United 
States.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  are  no  better  or  worse 
than  people  of  the  same  class  in  most  other  countries. 

The  Japanese  question  on  the  Pacific  Coast  has  settled 
itself  if  the  immigration  remains  strictly  limited  as  it  now  is, 
and  if  our  own  people  will  give  no  further  attention  to  it 
unless  they  have  some  urgent  and  important  reason  for  so 
doing.  The  Japanese  are  few  in  number.  They  attend 
to  their  own  affairs  and  want  to  be  let  alone.  If  they  are 
let  alone  for  a  few  years,  it  will  be  forgotten  that  they 
were  ever  considered  a  problem.  If  they  are  to  be  threatened 
and  made  victims  of  political  parties  and  have  to  face 
continually  the  fear  of  unfair  and  humiliating  legislation, 
then  difficulties  may  arise  which  will  not  be  merely  local 
in  character.  A  state  of  feeling  may  be  engendered  in  Japan 
which  the  Government  of  that  country  cannot  cope  with,  and 
which  may  develop  into  a  situation  of  grave  menace  for  this 
whole  nation. 

The  peril  of  the  situation  on  the  Pacific  Coast  lies  not  in 
the  fact  that  there  are  some  thousands  of  well  disposed  Japa- 
nese trying  to  live  there  lawfully  and  in  peace,  but  in  the 
disposition  of  selfishly  interested  persons  of  other  races  to 
incite  racial  and  economic  prejudice  against  the  Japanese. — 
From  " America  to  Japan/'  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 


\ 

(  48  ) 


///  THE  JAPANESE  QUESTION  IN  THE  UNITED 

STATES. 

Especially  written  for  the  Japanese-American  News. 

By  Wm.  T.  Bonsor, 

Secretary  Anti-Jap  Laundry  League 

of  San  Francisco. 

This  is  a  problem  which  at  the  present  time  affects 
primarily  the  Pacific  Coast  and  the  Hawaiian  Islands  as 
the  Japanese  population  in  the  United  States  is  practically 
confined  to  these  localities.  The  issues  involved  are  there- 
fore misunderstood  by  many  as  they  are  necessarily  un- 
familiar with  the  resultant  conditions  of  Japanese  immi- 
gration and  competition. 

The  relations  between  the  two  countries  are  friendly 
and  will  continue  friendly  even  though  the  Americans 
affected  by  Japanese  aggression  may  strive  and  eventually 
\viu  their  objective — which  in  time  to  come  will  be  favor- 
ably appreciated  by  all  concerned  as  to  the  best  interests 
of  both  the  Japanese  and  American  people. 

Much  can  be  said  on  this  question.  Men  have  written 
volumes.  A  brief  statement  can  only  touch  upon  it.  It  is 
said  by  some  that  the  "Gentlemen's  Agreement"  will  solve 
the  question.  If  we  take  into  consideration  the  Japanese 
immigration  now  permissible,  including  exempt  classes, 
''Picture  Brides,"  etc.,  added  to  a  consideration  of  the 
large  percentage  of  Japanese  births  in  this  country,  it  can 
be  easily  seen  that  the  future  Japanese  population  of  the 
above  mentioned  localities  will  run  into  enormous  figures. 
In  other  words,  statistical  facts  and  figures  prove  that  Cali- 
fornia's future  is  seriously  threatened  by  a  similar  con- 
dition as  is  now  existing  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  There, 
American  labor  and  industry  is  now  fighting,  backed  to 
the  wall,  against  industrial  and  business  annihilation. 

Why  cannot  Japanese  and  Americans  intermingle  in 
the  various  ramifications  of  life  profitably  and  peacably? 
Racial  differences  will  not  permit.  And  this  is  no  fault  of 
the  Japanese.  It  is  simply  History  repeating.  It  is  con- 
tended by  some  that  social  and  industrial  assimilation  is 
possible.  Experience  in  this  regard  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
and  the  Pacific  Slope  has  proven  otherwise.  In  theory 
amalgamation  is  sometimes  advanced  as  possible.  Experi- 
ence refuses  to  concur  in  the  theory.  Many  who  advocate 

C   49    ) 


assimilation  as  possible,  reject  amalgamation  as  possible. 
However,  History  and  experience  teach  us  that  assimila- 
tion is  impossible  whenever  amalgamation  is  impossible. 

The  economic  effects  of  Japanese  immigration  and  com- 
petition are  apparent  to  the  naked  eye.  The  Japanese, 
because  of  their  training,  wrork  for  less  and  live  with  less 
than  Americans.  To  successfully  compete  with  American 
business  and  labor  they  continue  to  so  work  and  live.  The 
result  is  that  the  Japanese  have  invaded  and  surpl anted 
Americans  in  many  walks  of  life,  thereby  assisting  in  that 
degree  in  forcing  upon  the  American  workers — unem- 
ployment. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  situation.  Of  course  many  efforts 
to  solve  the  question  are  being  made  by  well-intended 
forces  and  otherwise,  unable  to  grasp  the  true  significance 
of  the  situation.  Japanese  in  Japan  would  not  welcome 
industrial  competition  by  American  workers  with  a  system 
tending  to  undermine  established  conditions.  They  would 
not  welcome  American,  immigration  and  competition  for 
the  reasons  mentioned  herein  as  well  as  other  reasons. 
Such  a  position  is  taken  by  Americans  in  the  United  States. 
The  situation  does  not  exist  interchangeable  in  practice 
because  Japan  happens  not  to  afford  industrial  oppor- 
tunity for  American  workers  as  does  the  United  States  for 
Japanese  workers.  However,  human  nature  is  quite  the 
same  the  world  over  and  did  an  interchangeable  situation 
exist  the  Japanese  would  take  the  identical  position  now 
taken  by  Americans  and  would  be  justified  in  so  doing. 

Positive  Asiatic  Exclusion  Legislation  and  strict  en- 
forcement of  same  coupled  with  a  mutual  increasing  realiza- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  two  races  cannot  successfully 
intermingle  and  progress,  will  in  a  large  degree  tend  to 
solve  the  unfortunate  state  of  affairs  now  existing,  for  the 
eventual  welfare  and  happiness  of  both  the  Japanese  and 
American  people. 


C  50  ) 


&  AMERICA  AND  RACE  PROBLEMS. 

By  The  Rev.  C.  F.  Aked,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

We  have  more  than  one  race  problem  upon  our  hands, 
and  Japan  ought  to  sympathize  with  us.  We '  have  not 
yet  shown  ourselves  able  to  cope  successfully  with  the  race 
issues  already  presented  to  us.  We  have  the  Negro  ques- 
tion. The  curse  of  slavery  is  not  wholly  blotted  out.  Some 
effects  remain.  In  the  providence  of  God  it  has  been 
ordained  that  no  man  can  put  a  chain  round  his  brother's 
ankle  without  finding  sooner  or  later  the  other  end  of  the 
chain  round  his  own  neck.  Negro  slavery  was  not  originally 
sought  by  the  American  people.  It  was  forced  upon  the 
Southland.  Later  the  South  acquiesced  in  its  existence 
and  sought  to  maintain  it.  South  and  North  have  ma<l<-. 
are  making,  will  continue  to  make,  heroic  and  splendid 
efforts  to  meet  in  a  spirit  of  righteousness  all  the  difficulties 
which  the  past  has  handed  down  to  the  present.  But  there 
it  is;  the  adjustment  is  not  yet  made.  There  are  problems 
to  solve;  there  are  questions  to  answer;  there  are  difficul- 
ties to  be  met ;  there  are  wrongs  to  put  right.  And  we  may 
be  forgiven  if  we  say  that  we  do  not  want  another  race 
question  thrust  upon  us.  I  am  not  suggesting  that  there 
is  no  difference  between  Africans  brought  here  as  slaves 
and  Asiatics  coining  here  as  free  immigrants.  There  is  a 
difference.  But  the  fact  remains  that  the  one  constitutes 
for  us  a  difficulty  great  enough.  We  do  not  want  another. 

Yet  we  have  another.  We  have  many  others.  There 
are  masses  of  unassimilated  foreigners  amongst  us,  and 
these,  unless  we  are  both  wise  and  lucky,  may  lower  the 
standard  of  American  living. 

Streams  of  immigrant  blood  have  brought  health  and 
wealth  to  the  American  body  politic.  Streams  of  immi- 
grant blood  have  brought  disease  and  poverty  as  well. 
1  in  migration  is  both  an  asset  and  a  menace.  All  the  world 
knows  with  what  incredible  success  America  does  receive 
the  millions  from  the  Old  World,  how  she  makes  Americans 
of  them,  and  how  they  become  a  part  of — an  integral 
and  infinitely  valuable  part  of — the  American  stock.  Yet 
we  in  America  know  that  the  success  is  not  complete.  The 
task  is  so  gigantic  that  it  may  strain  all  American  resources 
of  nerve  and  brain,  American  institutions,  and  the  Ameri- 
can love  of  liberty.  Put  it  at  the  best,  assuring  our- 
selves as  we  well  may  that  America  is  not  going  to  fail 

(  51    ) 


in  this  task  of  assimilating  the  millions  from  the  Old 
World,  it  is  at  least  clear  that  America  has  just  about  as  much 
as  she  can  do.  It  is  admitted  that  the  task  which  we  have 
already  set  ourselves  is  gigantic;  it  is  not  for  the  good  of 
the  human  race  that  we  should  deliberately  make  it  im- 
possible ;  that  American  institutions  and  American  civiliza- 
tion should  be  overwhelmed  and  destroyed.  With  this 
view,  I  repeat,  Japan  must  sympathize.  What  is  called  the 
Gentlemen's  Agreement  of  1907,  by  which  Japan  under- 
takes to  prohibit  the  emigration  of  laborers  from  her 
country  to  American  shores,  is  her  pledge  of  sensible  and 
friendly  understanding. 

It  is  probable  that  the  time  has  come  for  the  United 
States  to  take  a  wide  view,  comprehensive,  statesmanlike, 
a  new  view  of  all  these  questions  of  immigration  and  of 
all  questions  of  policy  related  to  immigration,  actual  or 
possible.  It  is  probable  that  the  time  has  come  when 
America  might  substitute  a  world-view  and  an  Ameri- 
can policy  for  local  and  temporary  expedients.  It  should 
not  be  impossible  to  meet  every  difficulty  with  a  policy 
satisfactory  to  the  best  mind  of  America,  from  the  mind 
represented  by  the  labor  union  to  that  represented  by  the 
patriot  and  the  cosmopolitan  with  world-wide,  universal 
sympathies.  And  this  policy — whatever  else  it  may  do  or 
fail  to  do — while  safeguarding  the  people  of  the  United 
States  from  the  added  difficulties  of  another  "race  ques- 
tion", should  without  doubt  lift  the  ban  of  discrimination 
which  now  affronts  the  Japanese,  offer  to  them  the  rights 
and  privileges  it  offers  to  the  people  of  other  nations,  and 
impose  no  restrictions  which  it  does  not  impose  upon  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  or  Germany,  of  Italy,  or  Russia. 

Meanwhile  let  this  be  our  loyal  and  loving  message  to 
Japan : 

We  recognize  your  splendid  ability,  your  marvelous 
and  mighty  achievements.  Your  valor  proved  on  land 
and  sea  attests  a  race  of  heroes.  Your  victories  in  the  arts 
of  civilization,  in  literature,  in  commerce,  in  the  pursuits 
of  peace,  reveal  your  genius. 

We  condemn  insolent  assertions  of  race  superiority. 
We  refuse  to  discuss  questions  of  superiority  and  inferior- 
ity, of  higher  and  lower.  God  has  made  of  one  blood 
every  nation  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth.  You 
with  us  are  the  Father's  children. 

We  recognize  your  mission  as  harmonizer  of  East  and 

C  52  ) 


West.  You  have  to  interpret  the  one  to  the  other.  We 
have  taken  our  law  from  Rome,  our  art  from  Greece,  our 
religion  from  the  Jew.  The  English  have  been  the  colon- 
izers. God  has  called  America  to  teach  liberty  to  man- 
kind. And  it  may  be  that  our  Father  in  heaven  has 
called  Japan  to  harmonize  eastern  and  western  civilization 
to  the  end  of  the  unification  of  the  world. 

We  sincerely  desire  your  friendship.  Our  professions 
are  not  mere  words.  We  accept  your  professions  of  friend- 
ship at  their  face  value.  We  believe  you  mean  what  you 
say.  We  mean  what  we  say.  We  wish  to  live  in  amity 
with  you.  We  wish  to  strive  with  you  only  in  the  healthy 
rivalries  of  peace  and  to  be  friends  with  you  on  land  and 
sea. 

We  condemn  the  insulting  policies  of  shortsighted  and 
selfish  politicians  amongst  us.  We  have  ourselves  no  part 
in  them.  We  believe  that  they  are  mistaken  where  they 
are  not  vicious  and  vicious  where  they  are  not  mistaken. 

We  declare  that  it  is  our  intention  to  oppose  these 
policies  everywhere,  and  to  do  all  that  lies  in  our  power 
to  defeat  them.  We  have  good  reason  at  the  present 
moment  for  believing  that  in  California  a  check  has  been 
placed  upon  these  sinister  movements  and  that  you  are 
likely  to  hear  less  of  them  in  the  coming  days.  We  have 
reason  for  saying  that  a  better  spirit  is  obtaining  and 
wiser  counsel  prevailing. 

And  we  piiblicly  pledge  ourselves,  now  and  in  the 
coming  years,  to  seek  to  influence  our  fellow  citizens,  the 
men  and  women  of  the  United  States,  to  the  end  that  all 
racial  antagonism  shall  be  done  away,  and  that  America 
at  least  shall  live  as  befits  a  people  who  proclaim  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 


C  53  ) 


^!^SS?»^,or 

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